Job tracker records summer spike in labour demand
Published:Friday | December 31, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Job advertisements are back on the upswing in a sign that companies are ramping up business, though nowhere close to pre-recession levels.
In the September quarter, employers posted 4,604 job ads - a 200 per cent jump on the same quarter a year ago when ads amounted to 1,533.
At the same time, the demand for work permits for imported workers rose 47 per cent in the review period, from 557 to 822, new data from the Ministry of Labour and Social Security show.
The ministry's labour market analyst Loraine Salmon said Wednesday the numbers were an indication that Jamaican industries were, in general, "more stable" than other countries, where employment cuts have been more significant and sustained.
"We have not seen any significant dips within industries in occupational groups. There continues to be steady demand for many areas," Salmon said.
But she was unwilling to take too bullish a position on what the new demand would mean for job prospects in 2011.
"Because of the general economic slump, we will have to wait and see," the analyst said.
Jobs have tanked in the recession, with the labour market-tracking desk at the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) placing the cut at 86,000.
The labour ministry, which uses press advertisements as a proxy for the status of the job market, indicates that current performance is way below 2008 levels.
In the fiscal year April 2008 to March 2009, ad placements numbered 15,164; in the next period ending March 2010, placements dropped 59 per cent to 6,190.
Since then, the quarterly numbers have seen an upswing. PIOJ reported that the April-June quarter, for example, saw the creation of 21,000 jobs.
The increase was due largely to increased employment in the wholesale and retail sector, which hired 12,900 persons, and trans-port, storage and communications, which took on an additional 8,200 workers, the PIOJ said.