KINGSTON, Jamaica – A rise in visitor arrivals and increased construction activities, were some of the reasons cited for the rebound in the performance of the economy for January to March 2015.

Real GDP grew by an estimated 0.3 per cent, reflecting an increase in the Services Industry up 0.6 per cent. The Goods Producing Industry contracted by 0.7 per cent. The findings were released by the Director General, Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), Colin Bullock, this morning, Wednesday, May 20, 2015, during the Institute’s quarterly press briefing.

The Director General also provided an update on the indicators of well-being that track Jamaica’s progress towards achieving the Vision 2030 Jamaica goals. He further pointed out that continued implementation of strategic investment projects such as hotel and road construction will impact the economy favourably, in the short-term.

Within the Goods Producing Industry, increases were recorded for Construction up, 1.4 per cent, and Mining & Quarrying up 0.2 per cent. Declines were, however, registered in Agriculture and Manufacturing down 0.5 per cent and 3.1 per cent, respectively. For Services, all Industries showed increases, with the exception of Producers of Government Services, down 0.2 per cent and Electricity & Water Supply, down 2.8 per cent.

In terms of the performance of the Labour Market, the Director General stated that the total employed labour force increased by 2,600 persons to 1,132,700 in January 2015 compared with January 2014 and 8,200 persons compared with October 2014. He also indicated that the unemployment rate during the month of January 2015 was 14.2 per cent compared with 13.4 per cent in January 2014 and 14.2 per cent in October 2014.

Under the Vision 2030 Jamaica – National Development Plan framework, four indicators were reviewed during the period—Health Status, Education Status, Labour Force Quality and Security Status.

Improvements were seen in Labour Force Quality where an average of 25.2 per cent of the total labour force had vocational or professional certification, based on the quarterly labour force survey for January 2015.

This represented an increase of 1.6 percentage points from 23.6 per cent in the January 2014 survey. In terms of Security Status, crime rates continue to trend downwards for the fifth consecutive year.

A total of 77 Category 1 Crimes per 100,000 population were committed over the January to March 2015 period, showing a decline of 3.0 per cent over the similar period in 2014. Murder rates however trended upwards during the period with 10.1 murders per 100,000 population being committed, up 18.2 per cent, over the similar period in 2014. Education Status as measured by the gross tertiary enrollment rate remained constant during the period while Health Status as measured by immunization coverage showed mixed results.