Unemployment remains low – STATIN

The Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) is reporting that the country’s unemployment rate remains at an impressive low of 7.3 per cent, based on the January 2020 Labour Force Survey.

Director General Carol Coy says the out-turn is 0.7 per cent lower than the rate of eight per cent recorded in January 2019 and just 0.1 per cent above the out-turn for the October 2019 survey.

Additionally, Coy said the number of persons in jobs as at January 2020 had increased by three per cent, compared to the corresponding period last year.

She was speaking during a STATIN virtual media briefing at the agency’s head office in Kingston yesterday.

Coy said a breakdown of the latest survey showed that the number of unemployed individuals as at January 2020 had declined by 7,100 persons, or 6.6 per cent, to 100,400, relative to the corresponding period last year.

She pointed out that while the overall number of unemployed males remained unchanged, at 43,400, the corresponding figure for females had fallen by 7,000 to 57,000.

The director general indicated that the out-turn for females represents a 1.3 percentage-point decline, from 10.3 to nine per cent, while the rate for males fell from 6.1 to 5.9 per cent.

Coy also said that the unemployment rate for youth aged 14 to 24 fell by 2.8 percentage points to 19 per cent in January, relative to 2018.

“The unemployment rate for male youth declined by 0.4 percentage points to 17.5 per cent, while the rate for female youth [fell] by 5.7 percentage points to 20.9 per cent,” she further said.

Meanwhile, Coy revealed that the number of persons in jobs had increased by 36,300, or three per cent, to 1,269,100.

The number of employed females rose by 19,600, or 3.5 per cent, to 578,800, while the figure for males climbed by 16,800 persons, or 2.5 per cent, to 690,300.

The overall labour force jumped by 29,300 persons, or 2.2 per cent, to 1,369,500 persons, with the number of males increasing by 16,700 to 733,700 and the female complement moving by 12,600 to 635,800.

Coy noted that the number of persons classified as being outside the labour force had decreased by 29,900, or four per cent, to 717,000.

The number of males in this category decreased by 16,900 to 290,400 persons, while females totalled 426,600, down 13,000.