Jamaica Records Historic Low Unemployment Rate

According to a Labour Force Survey by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN), Jamaica’s unemployment fell to a record low of 6.2% in January 2022.

However, in January 2020, STATIN reported that the country’s unemployment rate was 7.1% which was 0.9% less compared to this year.

Based on further findings presented, in January 2022, over 1,257,100 people were employed which is an increase of 57,000 or 4.8% as compared to the previous period.

A higher percentage of females are employed at an increased amount of 5.5%, while males increased at 4.3%. Additionally, the unemployment rate for females declined from 10.4% to 7.9% and for males from 7.6% to 4.8%.

Female youth’s unemployment rate has a more significant percentage decrease as compared to males, whereas, a decline from 5.1% to 17.7% was reported for unemployed youths for the period as compared to January 2021.

Approximately more than 755,000 persons are outside of the labour force in January 2022, meaning that these individuals are not employed or unemployed.

Nonetheless, as compared to January 2020, there were 717,000 legal working Jamaicans outside the labour force before the Covid-19 pandemic.