Unemployment Rate Declines in January 2019

• Jamaica’s unemployment rate declined to 8.0% in January 2019, relative to the 9.6% recorded in January 2018.  This improvement in the unemployment rate occurred in spite of the 1.2% reduction in the number of persons classified as being ‘Outside the Labour Force’.
• There was a 2.4% increase in the number of participants classified in the ‘employed labor force’, and the number of female entrants (3.5%) more than doubled the number of males (1.4%) joining the labor force.
• Furthermore, the unemployment rate for youth (14-24 years) declined to 21.8% in January 2019 compared to 23.7% in January 2018.
• STATIN’s survey indicates that at end-January 2019, there were 1,340,200 persons in the Labour Force, an increase of 8,400 (0.71%) when compared to 1,331,800 registered in January 2018.

(Source: STATIN)