JAMAICA’S unemployment rate dipped to a new historic low of 4.2 per cent in October, the lowest it has been since Independence, according to data released by Statistical Institute of Jamaica (Statin) on Tuesday. That is down from 4.5 per cent in April 2023, which was the previous record low for the percentage of Jamaicans who wanted a job and could not find one at the time of the survey.

The lowering of the unemployment rate was realised as 1.32 million Jamaicans were working — more than ever in the country’s history — representing 85,200 more people working than in October 2021.

The year-over-year data compared October 2023 to October 2021. Statin has no data for the labour force for October 2022 because at that time it was conducting the population and housing census, it said in notes accompanying the latest labour force statistics.

Overall, there were 57,300 unemployed people in October 2023, 39.0 per cent fewer compared to October 2021.

“The unemployment rate for males was 3.1 per cent, down from 5.4 per cent in October 2021, and 5.4 per cent for females, down from 9.0 per cent in the comparable quarter of 2021,” the report said.

It went on further to say that in October 2023 there were 152,600 people working in ‘Real Estate and Other Business Services’, reflecting an increase of 22,000 people or 16.8 per cent. The majority of those employed in that industry — which includes business process outsourcing services — are females at 15,100, compared to males at 6,900.

Meanwhile, the ‘Construction’ industry employed 133,200 individuals, an increase of 19,300 or 16.9 per cent, with males accounting for 98.4 per cent or 19,000 of the increase. There were 243,300 people — an increase of 10,600 or 4.6 per cent more — employed in the industry group ‘Wholesale and Retail Trade; Repair of Motor Vehicles and Motorcycles’. However, there were 8,900 fewer individuals employed in ‘Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing’ industry.

Meanwhile, the youth (14-24 years) unemployment rate was 12.6 per cent, down 6.3 percentage points compared to 18.9 per cent in October 2021.

“This was 0.4 percentage points higher than April 2023 and 0.6 percentage points lower than July 2023. In October 2023 the unemployment rate for males 14 to 24 years was 9.9 per cent and 15.9 per cent for females within the same age group,” Statin said.

It added that Jamaica’s labour force grew by 48,900 or 3.7 per cent more people than in October 2021 to 1,377,600 persons, the majority of who were males at 738,900 and 638,700 females. Of the labour force data, 1,320,400 people were employed in October 2023; 715,900 were males and 604,500 were females.