Statistical Institute Of Jamaica Records Significant Drop In Unemployment

The land of wood and water is experiencing positive growth and the Statistical Institute Of Jamaica by way of their Director-General Carol Coy, recently released information that showed that unemployment in Jamaica for July was registered at a percentage of 8.5 per cent.

This amount, according to the Institute of Statistics, was lower than the number captured for last year at this time by 4.1 per cent from an amount of 12.6 per cent. This information was captured as a part of the monthly survey for Statin.

As reported by Director General Coy who spoke at the organization’s monthly briefing on Wednesday, the numbers from the survey reflects that there was a 30.4 per cent decline in unemployed persons, which equates to 49,200 which now brings the number of unemployed males to 112,500. Unemployment as it relates to females also dropped a massive 17.5 per cent.

For youth between the ages of 14 and 24, the unemployment rate was recorded at a lower amount than the number last year as it was at 30.3 per cent then and now at 23.9 per cent, decreasing by 6.4 per cent.

The numbers for the Employed Labour force has also recorded positive growth with the number of persons increasing by 93,400 bringing the total number to 1,215,000, which saw the number of employed males going up by 55,700 to register a 9 per cent growth while the employment number for females went up by 37,700, to reach an amount of 537,500 which was a noticeable 7.5 per cent increase.

Specific areas such as Real Estate and the Construction Industry increased in Employment by 50 per cent with up to 118,300 persons being employed with both males and females a part of the number, however, there was a higher recorded percentage of Employed men in the area of construction while many women were recorded to be employed in Real Estate.

Other areas that recorded an increase in Employment were the Accommodation and food services industries, which showed increased employees in the Forestry, Fishing and Agricultural industry with up to 6200 persons getting employment.

There were also 5500 more people employed in wholesale, and retail and for jobs concerning the repair of cars and bikes.

Other increases in employment were evident with Elementary occupations, Market Salespersons, shop workers, clerks, professionals, those persons who do technical jobs and c work, which helped to carry the unemployment rate down significantly.