Unemployment is on the rise while the employed labour force has shrunken. The Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) says the pandemic prevented them from carrying out the labour force survey in 2020.
STATIN says the 2021 Labour Force Survey for April was compared to the data for the similar period in 2019.
The 2021 survey showed that majority of the jobs occupied are in the wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles, and motorcycles industry group, accounting for more than 233 thousand persons.
Agriculture, forestry, and fishing accounted for more than 192 thousand jobs, followed by construction and arts, entertainment, real estate, and other business services.
The findings were similar to that of 2019 however; entertainment suffered the largest decline in employment with a drop of 17 percent or more than 22 thousand people.
Meanwhile, unemployment jumped by more than 13 percent for the April Labour Force Survey compared to the same period in 2019.
More in this CVM Live report from Neika Lewis:
