Unemployment rate declines
Published:Wednesday | October 31, 2018 | 9:02 PM
The Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) is reporting that Jamaica's unemployment, as of July 2018, declined to 8.4 per cent.
This was, STATIN said, 2.9 percentage points lower than the rate of 11.3 per cent for July 2017.
The agency explained that the reduction was mainly due to an increase in the number of persons employed and a simultaneous reduction in the number of persons in the labour force.
In July 2018, the number of persons employed was 1,226,400, representing an increase of 12,800 persons above the number recorded in July 2017.
According to STATIN, the number of males employed increased by 5,900 to 681,800 while female employment increased by 6,900 to 544,600.
The agency said the labour force in July 2018 was 1,338,200 persons, a decrease of 2.2 per cent compared to July 2017.
The male labour force, which comprised 723,600 persons in July 2018 decreased by 1.5 per cent relative to July 2017 while the female labour force decreased by 3.0 per cent to 614,600 persons.
Regarding the youth unemployment rate, STATIN said that the figure decreased from 27.5 per cent in July 2017 to 22.2 per cent in July 2018.
Over the same period, the unemployment rate for both male and female youth declined by 5.2 percentage points.
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