Local jobless rate at 4.9% as workers grow to 62k
(CNS): The significant growth in the workforce over the last year has done little to assist the local unemployment rate, which was still running at 4.9% at the end of April. According to the results of the ESO’s Spring 2024 Labour Force Survey, over 61,000 people are currently in work, an increase of 6.5% compared to Spring 2023 LFS. Of those, just over 22,000 are Caymanian. The number of unemployed people who are looking for work was estimated at 1,740, of which 1,142 are Caymanians.
The number of unemployed Caymanians rose by over 300 from the spring of 2023 but remained steady compared to the Fall 2023 LFS. According to this latest survey, the unemployment rate among Caymanians grew by 1.2% compared to last spring, but it fell by 0.1% compared to the unemployment rate among locals at the end of October last year.
The increase in the number of people in work overall compared to the fall survey is quite significant; in the six months between October 2023 and the end of April 2024, an additional 2,500 people were added to the workforce, the majority of which were expatriates. Over the 12-month period between the 2023 spring survey and this year, the total labour force, which includes those looking for work, increased by almost 7% to reach a record-breaking 62,743 people, and over 61,000 of them have a job.
Despite an increase in the headcount, wages showed no sign of increasing for the majority of people. Around 30,000 workers, nearly half of the workforce, earn less than $4,800 per month, with almost 15,000 earning a monthly salary under $2,400.
The survey also reveals another increase in the official population. It is now 87,866, up by around 5% from last year.
See the full Labour Force Survey on the ESO website.
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Category: Economy, Local News, Politics
I can think of 19 or so soon to be added.
4.9% choosing not to work.
caymanian unemployment myth continues
Unfortunately the real story is that WORC under the Honorable Seymour grant permits to anyone who claims they need workers, then these workers are turned loose on the streets looking jobs wherever they can find them as long as they carry a payoff to the person who got them the work permit. The construction sites love these kind of workers because they then just pay them a flat rate, so they can skirt the issues of following the labor laws because technically these people they are employing are classified as sub-contractors. It is a win for all the greedy developers and so called contractors who hire them because they have way less to pay out, therefore more into there pockets. Of course Honorable Seymour could give a rats ass about it since he doesn’t like to follow the labor laws anyway. The whole island is a dam corrupt rotten joke from the top to the bottom. But it will stay business as usual and we will just have to accept it or leave.
So ….. hundreds more higglers on our beaches. Definitely thousands more high vis wearing road racers clogging up the roads, adding to the housing crisis and compounding the day to day stress in our society all so a few politicians can get rich off of developers who overbuild properties on our shore lines for non-residents. We need a new government that will shut all of that down!
The myth continues
There are jobs, but the reality is who could live off the wages they pay? Not a family trying to get by, just someone who lives 20 deep in a 3 bedroom home.
vote every one out thats all i can suggest. This will not stop if you dont get the old way of thinking out. They are ruining this country faster than any hurricane ever could. I dont care who you are, if you were elected before you are NOT and i mean NOT getting me or my families vote.
Can they please explain how, if there are 37,500 people her on work permits (not counting dependents) and 5,000 with Permanent Residence with the Right to Work (whether under the points systems or as spouses of Caymanians or Permanent Residents) and 22,000 Caymanians in the workforce (totaling 64,500) that only 61,000 people “have a job.”
Which rug have 3,500 members of our workforce (6%) been swept under?
And rather than guessing, why not just enforce the pensions law and then ask the regulator how many different people, of what immigration status, have active (contributing) pensions?
That would give real numbers. Much better than statistics.