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.
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid
Category: Economy, Local News, Politics
The essential tourism industry could absorb many (seasonal or permanent) local staff each high season.
In the slow season, surely we could train dozens of our own good, hardworking and law abiding people for the lucrative front facing posts like Bartenders, Wait staff, Concierge, PBX operators, reservations etc?!
There are many nice restaurants, hotels and condos with people employed from 100+ nations.
Many are on seasonal temporary permits.
The high season will start in November..it doesn’t take months for such training, and a refocus on Native Caymankind, especially for young graduates, and even ladies working a second job.
I and many locals did this work successful from decades gone, when our fledgling tourist industry was just blossoming.
caymanians don’t want to do this type of work…it needs dedication and decent work ethic
@9:31 AM just leave our country, we dont want nor need hateful & racist people like you here.
We built the tourism ind.
We ARE Caymankind.
Now the greedy leeches….
Sorry but “The number of unemployed people who are looking for work was estimated at 1,740, of which 1,142 are Caymanians.” how can you be looking for work and not be Caymanian? I thought if you didn’t have a permit you were not allowed to look for work?
Pr holders, spouses of Caymanians, dependents of permit holders, spouses of pr holders. And technically I think children of all of the above who are not Caymanian yet.
You can be here married to a caymanian with the right to work, and be unemployed and looking for a job.
Dependent spouses and children are free to seek work.
Don’t worry when Kenneth Bryan has the authority to hire civil servants. He will employ every unemployed caymanian regardless of capability sending Cayman into the dark ages.
This is what happens when you elect persons with zero business experience.
I thought the same thing. They may be PR holders or spouses of PR holders/Caymanians. Would be nice if WORC specified so we didn’t have to guess.
It is possible to be the spouse of a Caymanian and be unemployed seeking employment even if they have not received Caymanian papers.
I can think of 19 or so soon to be added.
You would think but prior experience demonstrates some voters don’t actually care about competence or performance. And some politicians vows to retire could be written in the sands of Seven Mile Beach.
4.9% choosing not to work.
caymanian unemployment myth continues
I am Caymanian As of Right. I don’t buy your BS about Caymanians not wanting to work. Truth be told, that is the lie that you all spread so that you can have your bosses ignore any application from Caymanians and thus hire your ‘people’ instead. Furthermore, shame on ALL employers here in the Cayman Islands who also continuously push this lie.
SHAME also on the Cayman Islands Government who continue to do nothing to monitor such employers including themselves.
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.
Alden bruk it. Seymour is just left scratching his head as to where it all went so wrong, while his civil servants keep telling him everything is great.
You sure Seymour isn’t scratching some other body parts?
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.
And convert our dollar to theirs and have a fortune back home.
Isn’t $6 an hour better than $0 per hour and sitting under the trees drinking and playing dominoes? Wait…no, our lazy riff raff are well happy doing nothing and complaining about furriners taking their jobs. Btw, where does the money for the drink and cigarettes come from……..
That’s from the drugs which are imported, but that doesn’t count as an official “job”.
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.
Does Jon-Jon’s company pay pensions & health insurance along with all other stipulations of the labor law?
“When questioned, Duh-Wayne was quoted as saying ‘you would have to be either very brave or a fool to ask a question like that'”. More news at 11. ZzZzzzzZz
Jon-Jon is the only dam fool.
No. The people are for enabling him by giving him their votes.
That’s probably his line when asked to take breathalyser/blood tests too.
At least historically, no.
He also seems to have trouble driving within the lines.
Separately, #Leggewasright.
As was Miller Shaw.
The Ministerial Code of Conduct enacted by this bunch when they were called PACT only requires Ministers to comply with those laws that in their personal opinions are relevant on any given day – that is actually what it says
To cite the man the day of his latest encounter with an inanimate object “You seen NOTHING you hear !!!!” in a tone dripping with threat .
His refusal for a breathalyzer test or a blood sample tells the public everything they need to know how much of a joke the enforcement of the law and regulations are !
Good thing a few of the people in HSA’s ER recorded the exchange , now as to who will have the fortitude to expose the bullying remains to be seen.
Never mind the fact the latest incident instance happened while driving a government owned vehicle at hours much closer to the last call for drinks than at reasonable office hours, that no accident investigation has been conducted and the officers on the scene were quaking in their boots as to how do deal with the situation!
As to the pension payments of the company in question the mind boggles maybe the payments have been made in donkey rides ?
https://youtu.be/c0TKAWEqmDs
That Youtube moment still paints quite the accurate image of the personnages we are dealing with these days, some of the cast members may have been switched off then back on to reset the modem , some have been switched around but the pond still contains to revolve around the same clique. When the court’s fool sits on the king’s throne, expect a circus , not a kingdom !
‘The officers on the scene were quaking in their boots as to how do deal with the situation’.
Lack of experience? Lack of knowledge? Lack of leadership by supervisors? Lack of top brass questioning how this was allowed to happen? Lack of integrity? Lack of honesty? Lack of any semblance of what is right? Lack of any other employment to go to when they are sacked for daring to question Duhwayne? All of the above?
I asked one of his employees 11:54 and he got very defensive, told me to “ mine ya own business”.
“5,000 with Permanent Residence with the Right to Work”
Would all 5,00 necessarily be working though?
Well, if they are paying an annual fee, and got PR based on their job, probably…