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(CNS): The unemployment rate among Caymanians fell to a new low of 3.6% in October 2022, with just 796 local people declaring themselves jobless, according to the Economic and Statistics Office’s Fall Labour Force Survey. With another 9,000 people added to the workforce last year, the population is now over 81,500, an increase of more than 10,000 people since the 2021 census. Allowing for the margin of error, it could be as high as 86,606.
This latest ESO survey also shows that overall unemployment, including permanent residents and all categories of expatriate workers without a job, has hit a record low of just 2.1%, which is categorized as full employment.
Caymanians now make up 37% of the 56,355 people who are currently employed here. Jamaicans remain the largest group of work permit holders at 21,888, making up almost 29% of the workforce. They are followed by 6,657 people from the Philippines, while the third largest group of foreign workers is now Americans at 4,252.
Overall, the number of people with a job has increased by 22.7% compared to the figure reported in the 2021 Census.
But despite thousands of jobs being created during 2022, there are still concerns that a growing number of workers are underemployed. Over 2,800 people reported being in that category, double the figure in the spring survey. Underemployment is defined as ‘Involuntary part-time’ work, where workers who want to work full-time can find only part-time work.
The majority of local people who are not working and are looking for a job reported “no work available” as their main reason for being unemployed. Almost three-quarters of the unemployed have previously held a job but almost 49% of local people without a job said they had been out of work for more than a year.
For those in work, salaries remain low. Around 4,000 people are earning less than the minimum wage of $6 per hour and some 21,000 people are earning less than $2,400 per month. Meanwhile, almost 60% of the entire workforce is paid under CI$3,600 per month.
The survey also shows that almost 16% of workers are employed in the construction sector, with just 7.1% working in the financial services sector.
See the 2022 Fall Labour Force survey results here:
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