Jamaican economy sheds 21,000 jobs, contracts 0.6% in Q4
Published:Friday | February 25, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Howard Campbell, Business Writer
The Jamaican economy maintained its sluggish trend during the last quarter of 2010, some due to the continuing effects of Tropical Storm Nicole, as well as the continued global downturn.
Gross domestic product contracted 0.6 per cent in the October-December period. The goods sector lost 0.7 per cent of value, while services declined 0.9 per cent.
Dr Gladstone Hutchinson, director general of the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), said it was the 13th consecutive quarter of decline.
Hutchinson said Jamaica lost 21,200 jobs in October with the construction and agricultural sectors accounting for most of the unemployed.
The global recession, which began in late 2008, has hit the once-vibrant construction industry which shed another 10,100 jobs in the quarter, he said.
Nicole's devastation in September put paid to agriculture's growth resulting in 7,700 persons losing their jobs.
Health and social work, 4,600 job lost, and hotels and restaurants, which shed 3,300 workers, completed the list of hardest-hit industries, Hutchinson said.
Despite encouraging signs in the mining and quarrying and bauxite sectors which grew 20.4 per cent and 12.2 per cent, respectively, helped by the recommissioning of Windalco's Ewarton plant, the PIOJ head foresees little change in Jamaica's economy for the next quarter.
"We're looking at growth between zero and one per cent, which is anaemic. That's not job-creating growth," he said.
"If we are not getting 2.5 per cent growth and above, it's just not good enough."
The PIOJ has a working committee in place that is supposed to be strategising on how to get the economy growing at a robust pace.
The agency will be staging a 'growth strategy symposium' during March.
Hutchinson pointed to crime as another hindrance to economic growth, especially in downtown Kingston where a strong extortion network still exists, though he was cautiously optimistic about a turn-around.
"It's getting better and we're moving in the right direction, but it's still not allowing our businesses to move on," said Hutchinson.
"When you see downtown Kingston picking up, when you see manufacturing picking up, then you know crime is becoming less of a problem."
He said PIOJ has established a community-renewal secretariat to work in the 100 most "vulnerable and volatile" communities in Jamaica, headed by Dr Terri-Ann Gilbert-Roberts.
Persons involved in this programme are expected to establish crime-reduction and community-development projects.