Population had grown to nearly 70,000
(CNS): Cayman’s unemployment rate increased in October last year, even when the population and workforce were both at an all-time high, according to the 2019 Fall Labour Force Survey (LFS). The report, undertaken before the COVID-19 pandemic changed everything, reveals that the population was just short of 70,000 and the workforce had reached almost 50,000. However, the number of jobless Caymanians grew by over 200.
The actual unemployment rate today, in the midst of the pandemic, has not been calculated, but The Cayman Islands’ Economic Assessment and Stimulus Plan, published by the ESO in May, estimates that among local workers it could climb as high as 20% this year, depending on how well the stimulus measures work.
Given the current circumstances, the latest workforce survey is now less relevant but it gives a glimpse of where Cayman was headed last October before COVID-19 reached the islands six months later. Despite the growth in the population and the number of people working, the report shows that the trend was not necessarily benefitting Caymanians.
The population was 69,914, having grown by 6.2% since October 2018, while the workforce grew by 6.3% to reach 49,089. Despite this, the local unemployment rate was 5.6% after more than 200 Caymanians were added to the local jobless tally, which reached of over 1,200.
Allowing for a margin of error, the ESO found that there could have been more than 25,000 work permit holders in addition to permanent residents and those working by operation of the law.
Compared to the survey taken in the autumn of 2018, the Caymanian population rose by 1.8% to 37,363, while the non-Caymanian population grew by 10.5% to 25,596 and the number of permanent residents grew by 17.1%, adding more than 1,000 for a total of 6,955.
However, the population now is estimated to have dropped to just under 59,400 since Cayman’s first positive case was confirmed on 13 March. Between 15 March and 22 March, when Owen Roberts International Airport was closed, 12,574 people left the islands and 4,003 people returned, leaving a net difference of 8,571, according to figures from Customs and Border Control.
Wesley Howell, the chief officer in the ministry responsible for immigration, said this week that by 15 June, a further 2,548 people had left and another 577 had returned.
See the stimulus plan in the CNS library
See the most recent and past Labour Force Survey Reports on the ESO website
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Category: Jobs, Local News
70K is perhaps fairly accurate , but perhaps still too many! As far as I can tell, our last 3 Governments have been “cautious” and selective with revealing the true population of our island. UDP Govt of some years ago conducted a census and the numbers were only reluctantly released later by the PPM Government which preceded this Unity Govt. So, they all realize that our population is larger than acknowledged and that born Caymanians are definitely the minority – so that’s why they don’t want to release updated numbers too often.
Moron politicians want to see 100,000 population by importing people!!
a good 30,000 gone wid dey cars would make erryting kriss! Time for Cayman and its environment to catch a break now!! Go home foreign debbules
Elements of our government vigorously pump to get more work orders processed because it means more money for them. How can this be stopped? Simple… Vote the bastards out!
They will take their cars with them?
When I first moved here 40 years ago the best hotel was the Holiday Inn; where the Ritz Carlton is now. All the maids were Caymanian. But gradually less and less Caymanians were willing to work as maids.
The total population then was about 18,000. Of this about 4,000 were expat. Crime was almost zero and the police had nothing to do.
No condo could be more than 3 stories high.
On the other hand….
Phone calls were a monopoly and it cost the equivalent of $10 a minute to call the USA or UK. No Internet or cellphones of course.
People watched TV on a VCR and rented American soaps that had been taped in Miami and flown over.
Most Caymanians didn’t have air conditioning. So many mosquitoes that you couldn’t eat outdoors in the evenings.
Sound attractive?
But who passed the laws that changed all of this? Not the expats because they don’t have a vote.
One solution is to increase work permit fees for low paid jobs so it becomes relatively less expensive to employ a Caymanian worker.
The hotels here are already expensive. How much more expensive would they be if wages were doubled?
And the work permit fees generated by expats help pay for the free schools that their own children cannot go to.
It’s a problem and I don’t know the answer.
Debbules???????
Okay, so no more excuses for the idle idiots who spend their days drinking crap beer outside of local bars, liquor stores, under public cabanas or on the public beaches. No need for the constant whining from losers who fail to get their lazy asses out of bed because of the evil foreigners taking ‘their’ jobs.
Take away their unearned income and get them working, because we all understand the superior work ethic and unparalleled standards of education amongst the Caymanian population. Should be an easy fix with so many hardworking geniuses coming on stream.
Oh wait, back in the real world.
We no get outta bed for less than $10 an hour.
8:10 am; You would if you were hungry!
12:37pm. And you don’t have any drunks or losers in your s … h… country??? Start counting – you have many…….. many ..,, go please!
CNS – the numbers are not additive. You cannot take the(estimated) population in October 2019 and then deduct net movement between 15 March and 15 June to get to a population figure now. What about all the movement between October and March, particularly given the rate of increase shown between 2018 and 2019? Or as another poster has pointed out, Wesley Howell’s airport movement figures count heads, not residents, so that 12K outbound figure has to include a serious number of tourists. Even if you believe the ESO guesstimate in the first place – and there are some major question marks over it given the declared level of expats apparently being almost identical to work permits in issue ignoring numbers of dependents- the figure is likely to be substantially higher than the 59K you calculate.
The simple fact is that no one – including the ESO and Immigration – actually have any idea of the number of people here, in exactly the same way that there is no register of those holding Caymanian status. We operate on a mixture of educated guesswork based on ESO sampling and factual data such as work permits in issue and the voting register, but somehow no one ever compares the factual data to the estimates to see how accurate the latter may be.
And God forbid that the government ever do what they are meant to have done under the law and compile a register of Caymanians. No one has the political cojones to open that Pandoras box and offend all those ghosts who think they are Caymanians and claim the rights but are not Caymanian under the law, even though it would eliminate discrimination against hiring Caymanians by demanding proof of their staus which is expensive and time consuming to obtain.
I am not sure that this is true. I believe that there is a list of status holders available
There is not. The law requires it but none exists. Hundreds of so called Caymanians are in fact not.
…the immigration law gave “ghosts” a deadline to apply for status by Dec. 31, 2007, but many did not. Teens must always re-apply for continuation by age 18 and still do not (this should be reminded to senior enrolled students at school). A ‘proof of status’ letter can also be issued to those who can produce (or reissue for $10) their own birth certificate as well as one or both of their Caymanian parents, and they do not. They were also given a window to register themselves at no penalty (ie the $50 fee), and chose to smoke their spliff. Honestly, if this spoon-feeding low-bar effort is still beyond the wherewithal and mental grasp of these hundreds, then maybe they deserve to forfeit their right to lawful Caymanian status, and civic voting rights? It’s at most a $60-80 solution, which qualifies each person for tens/hundreds of thousands in lifetime benefits and front-of-the-line privileges. How anyone with the ability to do so, would continue not to do so, is beyond comprehension.
Order replacement documents here:
https://www.vitals.ky
Potentially thousands of persons who our own government treats as Caymanian are in fact not. They are given scholarships, free healthcare, employment and business licenses, all illegally. No-one does anything about it. It looks and smells like corruption.
@ 8:31 am ……. How about checking that “list”. You could be wrong. (Be sure you see the real list.)
The worst thing that has ever happened to the Cayman Islands is Dart!
The worst thing for the islands is Lazy ass Caymanians. Think about how good this place could be for everyone and not just a certain tribe of people. How well it would run. How much security it could offer its residents. If people like Dart who think big and think of others could run this place it would make it functional for everyone.
in 1980 all the “lazy ass Caymanians” had good jobs in banking or tourism. They earned good money – at least $6.00 an hour and could build their homes without going to the Bank. It was very hard for an expat to get a job and that is how it should be. Bit by bit, things changed and cheap labour was imported so the hotels could get away with not paying any extra. 40 years later, Lazy Ass Caymanians are not going to work for $6.00 an hour and why should they? This is their country and they should be first.
7:45 … Yes they should, but they have no leadership.
I know we were not lazy when we built these islands to be the best in the world, for the like of you! Damn ungrateful bastards. Go home!!!!
Up yours, dtfp! I love it here and I plan to stay here until I die. I would love it more if Dart would go somewhere else.
The worst think that every happened to the Cayman Islands was Jim Bodden, who not only brought American union-style, cut-throat politics with him, but also helped create the current nanny state where too many Caymanians not only feel entitled to all kinds of free shit, but also think they should have high-paying management jobs for which they aren’t qualified just because they’re Caymanian.
Thank you 754am some are merely trying to mislead people and diminish people fears and the serious threat this poses to both our environment and the social fabric of these islands. Lying Bast$&@# One of the foreign bosses of that department was once quoted as saying when seeing the high unemployment rate of Caymanians “what’s the problem with that”
Mann that sounds beautiful Anon 8:52am when can we start to implement this program can you please stay around long enough to help us to make this possible please?
You’d be on the first plane out to Honduras if that happened.
8:52am your materialistic and narcissistic rant speaks volumes about just exactly who you are and you forgot less people just like you ! Go Home Star !
Less people:
– Less people buying grocery
– Less people renting
– Less people buying homes
– Less people buying clothes
– Less people going to restaurants and bars,
– Less people going into hotels
– Less people need legal and business services
– Less people buying shit at ALT, Kirk’s and Cox
– Less people going to gas stations
– Less people paying for CUC and Water Authority
– Less teachers, doctors and police
– Less people buying stupid shit downtown
– Less people buying coconuts from crackheads in town
– National revenues go down / Unemployment rises for Caymanians
– Work permit goes down, government revenues goes down
So here is the solution. Since less people and less work permits so fucking great and the cure to unemployment, then don’t mess around and go for the top jobs!
Get rid of ALL work permits for Doctors, nurses, CEO’s managing directors, Fund administrators, accountants and lawyers, and replace them all with unemployed Caymanians.
Then make the minimum wage 100.00 an hour.
Problem solved!
There is a faster way! Get rid of all the MLA that are just interested in getting rich! That would be about 99 percent of them. Vote their asses out!!!
Ezzard and Kenneth Premier and Deputy..
Kenneth??? He’s spineless
8:52 am, so you think your are really smart, a legend in your own mind
Fewer!
Yes, but the income tax rate would be 94%, so net earnings would still be $6/hour and no one in their right mind would see a doctor here.
There are far too many people on this tiny island who do nothing for the economy but drag it down also. It needs to be capped
8.08am – thank you! I said it many, many times before and I’ll say it AGAIN God has given us a great chance to RE-START. Slow this place down and see the roses (meaning take a proactive look at what God gave us) it’s perfect! Learn from our too many mistakes. Let’s do it: going forward we must do the right thing with utmost honesty and integrity. Let’s do it!!!!! 🙏
The numbers are bullshit. There were well over 25,000 here on work permits, and that does not include spouses and children. The number of Caymanians is grossly exaggerated, and a large portion of the 12,000 who left were tourists.
To the person that thumbed the above down, please tell us how there can be 29,000 work permit holders, with spouses and dependent children on top of that, and only 25,000 expatriates in Cayman?
Please also tell us how the ESO determines whether a person is Caymanian or not? They seem to have granted status to thousands without any vetting or application process. I thought only Big Mac Bush has the power to do that?
ESO determines if someone is Caymanian by asking people to say whether they are Caymanian. Self selection – no legal basis to it.
Hence the incredible inaccuracy verging on incompetence. That is no basis to inform government policy. Thousands of persons they are counting as Caymanian are not.
From my experience the ESO visits aren’t random at all, they go down the voter list and knock on specific doors of registered voters.
What makes you think all voters are Caymanian? The elections office certainly does not follow the requirements of the immigration law to test eligibility to vote.
You sound like a Trumphole.
7.15pm Since you seem to know the Elections Office doesn’t follow the law challenge all the Voters you think shouldn’t be registered.
There were at least 40K permit holders with spouses/dependants here before lockdown. And 50-60K caymanians/status holders/PRs etc. Govt wont admit but we were already at almost 100K hence the rental market demand/high pricing,shortage of housing and massive traffic issues.
Its funny that they just wont release the real numbers but if you have contacts within govt or to someone on a Board, the numbers are known.
PCR tests are not supposed to be counted more than once for one person – there are not “different reasons to test”. So when you see the population tested numbers taper off, just multiply that by 4 per Govts plan to test 25% and you will see real population revealed. So far, we are at the 80-85K mark.
Damn we got a mess!!!! 👍🏽 7:59am you know it!
You forgot to add the nearly 7,000 PR holders to the non-Caymanians total, which would bring the total of non-Caymanians to around 32,500.
As for the numbers of Caymanians, there are 21,800 registered voters, so all of them are Caymanian. Then you have to add all the Caymanian children and all the Caymanians who aren’t registered to vote to that total. There are a LOT of Caymanians (especially status Caymanians) who don’t register to vote because they don’t want to get called for jury duty. 37,300 sounds about right to me.
But I actually agree with another comment made – I think the population was well over 70K by the time lockdown started because of the population growth in 2019 Q4 and 2020 Q1.
Finally, I don’t know what you’re talking about with regard to no application for Cayman Status. Of course there is an application process. Where are you getting your information?
Good. Now we have time to sort out our infrastructure before all those people who left, and more, come here, first because they’re seeking a COVID-free life and next because we started recovering so much earlier than everywhere else we’ll be even more of a paradise than we already are. Like the Irma/Maria effect on steroids but not just for tourism; for everything. Long live the Cayman Islands and its people, capable of adapting to any hardship and coming out strong, for centuries.
It will be paradise again if we can get certain people out of here before we have to start eating McKeeva diet of sea grass soup! They are going to bankrupt us – Alden wake up please!!!!
Al and Mac pee through the same straw.
Thank God the population has dropped. The quality of life was terrible last year and beginning of this year with that population pushing 70k.
So happy we probably now will not have a 50 storey building built in the Seven Mile Beach Corridor during my lifetime.
The coronavirus has now made that economically impossible to do at a profit.
Hope we allow no buildings higher than 10 storeys. Nothing higher than the Kimpton.
Kimpton is 12 stories. The first two were buried to make it look like 10.
The buried floors do not count as stories.
They still exist, and they were above ground when they were first built.
Habitable levels and building heights used to be calculated by mean average height amsl of fronting road. The rules changed for Kimpton and planning laws retroactively updated.
What is AMSL?
Animal Magnetism Seduces Ladies
Above mean sea level. Industry term.
They count to me. They are there and they add to the height of the building. It’s just another lie by You Know Who.
Or houses on lots less than. 23