Cayman population and permits on the up
(CNS): Statistics from the Department of Immigration (DoI) and the Economics and Statistics Office (ESO) found that the population of the Cayman Islands is on the increase again, fuelled by almost record breaking levels of permit holders. The latest figures from immigration show that by the middle of this month, there were 23,097 people in Cayman on some form of work permit. The ESO revealed in its latest Labour Force Survey (Fall 2015) that Cayman’s population stands at over 60,400 people, boosted by an increase in the number of men, who now make up 50.1% of the population.
With almost 50,000 people over the age of 15, the workforce is made up of more than 40,000 people; Caymanians make up almost 48%, while just over 10% are permanent residents and nearly 42% are permit holders.
The largest national group of foreign workers in Cayman still comes from Jamaica. Workers from that island make up almost 41% of permit holders, a total of 9,445 people, significantly more than the next largest group of visiting works, which is 2,930 permit holders from the Philippines. British workers are the next largest group with 1,893 people on permits, followed by 1,343 Americans and 1,201 Canadians. There are people from 121 different countries now holding permits in Cayman from all corners of the globe, including 197 Australians and just three workers from Zambia.
The majority of foreign workers are living in George Town and make up 62.5% of the capital’s population.
The vast majority of the working population is involved in service and sales jobs, accounting for 21.6% of the workforce, and professionals make up the next largest group at 16.3%. The tourism sector employs over 11% of the workforce, while financial services employs 10% and more than 12% of working Caymanians, according to the ESO in its autumn report.
The Labour Force Survey revealed some interesting statistics about the population. More than 98% of people in Cayman appear to have a mobile phone in the family home but almost half of the population does not have any house insurance.
Category: Jobs, Local News
I am one of those work permit holders, i have been here for just over 5 years with my wife and son. My wife doesn’t work but offers her time to teach disabled children horse riding as well as other volunteer work in the community. My job has been advertised each year and not one caymanian has applied. This must mean that I am the only person in cayman capable of doing my job? I have already gained 5 yrs experience in this role which no one in cayman has. My role is important to many caymanians to better themselves. I work 6 days a week with 1 sick day in 5 years. I am no hero but have a desire to do well, learn my role, get experience and better myself and my families fortunes. Not 1 dollar of my salary leaves cayman and yet at the end of each month I’m counting pennies until my salary is deposited like most people. Please don’t issue racist remarks against permit holders because many caymanians have bettered their lives working beside me and other permit holders but there are some who have not because their attitude wasn’t what our employer wanted. Everyone has choices, everyone has goals and desire and maybe the few unemployed caymanians simply do not desire to better themselves. Cayman is not unique, in fact it is one of the better countries as people in the UK and US openly admit they don’t want to work and yet claim 1000’s in social handouts each month. As the saying goes “you can take a horse to water but you can’t make him drink”
Wow! Really?? Again?? Most of the comments here are racist.
23,000 on work permits and my grandson cannot find a job after sending in dozens of resumes. The problem is Government does nothing to correct the imbalance between local manpower and permit holders.
Trogtastic.
Did he get interviews?
Presume cv doesn’t say ” pay me to do nothing?”
I looked a couple of times and I’m sure I couldn’t see any Chinese on work permits! I find that amazing that one of the most populated countries in the world has no one here!
I guess no one has been to Canton Chinese Restaurant then at The Strand?
…or seen the job ads from Chinese Banks specifically targeted at Chinese speaking individuals with extensive knowledge of Chinese Law and degrees coming out of their a** at a pittance of a salary that no other sane person who is that qualified would accept……
The ones here are mostly government spies.
ESO Permanent Residents ARE Non Caymanians.
23,000 work permit holders means 23,000 foreign nationals are working in Cayman NOT 18,000.
Plus their spouses & kids.
Traffic has become insane! If you’re going to increase the population to 100,000 then we have to put stricter vehicle controls.
Its sad that Caymanians are a minority in their own country. It is also sad that their own government officials are not public service minded but are self serving. Even sadder is the marginalization of the poor and the lack of accountability. People in jobs their are ill equipped to perform well in, hired because of who they know or based on their nationality. Include too those in jobs and getting well paid who actually do nothing. Cayman is actually place and it does not know it.
No disrespect here and I wish I was wrong, but it is nigh on impossible to hire a semi-skilled Caymanian in the private sector. I have tried on numerous occasions, but these folk are lazy, make all kinds of excuses and are not motivated to bettering themselves.
It is very sad, but it is the truth. I wish I were wrong. I have been a pro-Cayman advocate for many years, but now I have been proven to be mistaken.
A new breed of Caymanian is emerging. They live here, they have no particular country., they work hard and they respect everyone else.
Children of the soil, children of the caressing ocean waves, children of the refreshing wind, children of the strong, noonday sun, if you do not wake up soon, you will lose your heritage.
To the politicians of Cayman. Shame on you. Your legacy is tainted by the sweaty dollars that your grubby hands still clutch at the expense of everything that is good and honourable.
Bull! There is no way every single Caymanian is lazy as you make out. Some yes but certainly not all, as is the case ..with any nation…
Every country in the world has smart and dumb people lazy and hard working. Did you want caymanians to deport the lazy ones? You came here and you see all that cayman has to offer but the reality is that you really did not want to hire local. So you met a lazy caymanians and used him as an excuse to brand the rest. I will be blunt with you you sir are lazy to the bone not to take the time to look.
In the Immigration Statics Report attached, what is the expanded form of the “Sub Type” like WSR, WSG, etc.?
And they do not even seem to count PR holders.
thank god for expats….
Any more questions why all our challenges ? We can’t be All lazy and stupid ! The way I see it there is a huge lack of Vision. Bring back the Caymanian Protection Board !
Caveman economics.
Zero sum troglodyte alert!
I have one question. On what basis do you choose which words to capitalise? Do you have a random capital generator or do you think about it?
I have one FOR SALE on each if you are interested. For every sale, I will throw in TWENTY exclamation marks for free!!!
Unemployment is down and work permits are up. It’s too bad that this fact and the relationship between the two seems to be ignored.
Michel, I’ll be gentle. The problem in Cayman is precisely that the local work force has all the protections and the expats none. Lose our jobs and bye bye Cayman. The difficulty in firing any Caymanian, regardless of the reason, is that the whole world of Cayman bureaucracy falls on the employer, even if that employee was lazy, didn’t turn up for work, didn’t do what they were supposed to do etc. As long as you have those protections many members of the Caymanian work force will take advantage of their “secure” jobs and take a pay check for essentially doing not much. And it is those same elements that complain when they cannot progress or pay rises are not much. If those protections were removed, those who take advantage of that system would soon learn that they need to work, try hard, learn and will progress accordingly. That would also make them valuable employees not just here, but in any country in the world. If they don’t learn, they are useless to everyone, employers here will move those jobs offshore when they can rather than be forced to employ substandard staff. And Cayman will sink at that point.
Now please understand, this is by no means all Caymanians, far from it. There are many who get it and get on with it. However being protected is not what you think it is, it makes the issue worse. Any nation that has over protected its work force, has learned the hard way. In the 70’s in the UK, it was the trade unions over protecting the workers. They bought the UK to its knees.
And the problem is that it is harder for an employer to know which category of Caymanian he is hiring until after he hires, at which point he has all the downside if he gets the decision wrong. Whereas if he hires foreign he can just revoke the permit. And then you have the unscrupulous employer who knows he can fail to pay health or pension and get away with it for WP holders but not Caymanians. Measures designed to protect Caymanians actually encourage discrimination.
The measures encourage the perceived economic cost of hiring Caymanians.
You are so right. Once an employer learns about how hard it is to get rid of a useless local employee they become much more reticent to hire locally again.
They seem so desperate to make Caymanian participation in the workforce look good that they count 15, 16, and 17 year olds as part of the workforce. Seriously, how many persons in that age bracket are (or even should) be in full time employment?
How many so called tourists who are in fact living here in their own homes are counted as living here? None.
Please can we get information that is meaningful, rather than statistical.
Fantastic news about growth and permit increases. This shows the economy is moving and represents the best way of dealing with with local unemployment, such that it exists. No doubt some of the zero sum troglodytes will moan with a healthy dose of Ezzardnomics.
Please don’t use cusswords (such as the E-word) on this esteemed forum.
But I did not think I would be allowed to call them XXXXX.