The Labour Force Statistics for October 2019 indicated an unemployment rate of 7.2%, compared to 8.7% in October of 2018. This is a historic low for Jamaica. The unemployment rate for both females (down 2.7%) and males (down 0.4%) showed improvement. Youth unemployment also decreased. In October 2019, most males within the labour force (21.75%) worked within the Agriculture Hunting Forestry and Fishing industry, followed by Wholesale and Retail Repair of Motor Vehicle and Equipment (17.17%), and Construction (14.73%). Within the same time period, the majority of women (22.28%) worked in the Wholesale and Retail Repair of Motor Vehicle and Equipment industry, followed by the Hotel and Restaurant Services industry (11.89%) and Education (9.79%) (see table 6).

Table 6: Jamaican Labour Force by Industry and Gender (October 2018 and October 2019)

Industry	Male (Column %)		Female (Column %)
	Oct-18	Oct-19	Oct-18	Oct-19
Agriculture Hunting Forestry & Fishing	21.75	20.78	8.92	8.24
Mining & Quarrying	1.04	0.73	0.31	0.23
Manufacturing	7.75	7.53	4.48	4.24
Electricity Gas and Water Supply	0.73	0.69	0.33	0.32
Construction	14.70	14.73	0.69	0.65
Wholesale & Retail Repair of Motor Vehicle & Equipment	17.00	17.65	23.22	22.28
Hotels & Restaurants Services	5.68	5.70	11.39	11.86
Transport Storage and Communication	8.51	8.48	2.71	2.83
Financial Intermediation	1.29	1.32	3.40	3.32
Real Estate Renting & Business Activities	6.34	6.77	8.87	8.79
Public Administration & Defence; Compulsory Social Security	4.63	5.54	5.34	5.89
Education	2.92	2.62	9.56	9.79
Health & Social Work	1.12	1.36	4.83	5.25
Other Community Social and Personal Service Activities	4.45	3.93	7.75	8.17
Private Households with Employed Persons	1.95	2.18	7.88	8.01
Industry Not Specified (Incl. Extra-Territorial Bodies)	0.15	0.00	0.33	0.12
Column Total (%)	100	100	100	100
Column Total (n)	672,200	682,800	547,000	565,600

 

Source: Fiscal Policy Paper, 2020-2021; STATIN, 2019

COVID-19 and Employment:

The Government of Jamaica, with assistance from the Private Sector of Jamaica (PSOJ) is responding to the COVID-19 pandemic with the largest stimulus package in the history of Jamaica of 25 billion dollars. Of that amount, a 10 billion spending stimulus is being used to facilitate the novel COVID Allocation of Resources for Employees (CARE-) Programme, a temporary cash transfer programme to individuals and businesses. The programme has 9 components targeting specific industries:

1. SET Cash – Supporting Employees (with) Transfer of Cash
2. BEST Cash – Business Employee Support and Transfer of Cash
3. COVID-19 General Grants
4. COVID-19 Compassionate Grants
5. COVID-19 Path Grants
6. COVID-19 Small Business Grants
7. COVID-19 Tourism Grants
8. COVID-19 Student Loan Relief
9. Other COVID-19 Support Programmes.

The Minister of Finance Dr the Honourable Nigel Clarke reports that since applications opened on April 9, 2020, over 400,000 Jamaicans have successfully applied for one or more of the 9 components by April 20, 2020. Between the announcement of Jamaica’s first COVID-19 case on March 10, 2020 and April, 2020, approximately 46,948  persons reported that they were laid off and subsequently applied for the SET Cash programme. This programme requires employers to verify that employees were laid off (Jamaica Observer, 2020). As suspected and due to incoming flight restrictions, the tourist sector has been impacted the greatest. In fact, the majority of the SET Cash programme applicants were from St. James and St. Ann, Jamaica’s main tourist destinations.

References:

Government of Jamaica. (2020). Fiscal Policy Paper 2020-2021. Ministry of Finance and the Public Service. Available from: https://www.mof.gov.jm/wp-content/uploads/fiscal-policy-paper-2020-21-140220.pdf

Jamaica Observer. (2020, May 14). JHTA working with Gov’t to resolve SET Cash programme delays – Jamaica Observer. https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/jhta-working-with-govt-to-resolve-set-cash-programme-delays/

Statistical Institute of Jamaica. (2019). Main Labour Force Indicators. Available from: https://statinja.gov.jm/LabourForce/NewLFS.aspx