Unemployment Falls to Record Rate 3.5%

Jamaica’s unemployment rate continues to fall to record lows.

The latest information provided by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica STATIN, shows the country’s unemployment rate falling to 3.5 percent

This slightly outperformed the previous historic low of 3.66 percent.

Chevon Campbell tells us more.

The Statistical Institute of Jamaica, STATIN updated its model for calculating the country’s unemployment at the end of 2023.

Before the model was updated the country’s lowest unemployment rate was 4.2 percent.

Jamaica again achieved this rate in April of 2024 under the updated model.

The unemployment rate has continued to decline since.

It’s now moved down from 3.6 percent in July, 2024 to its latest rate of 3.5 percent as of October.

According to STATIN, The female unemployment rate was higher at 4.5 percent, while the unemployment rate for males was
2.6 percent.

The youth unemployment rate was eleven percent.

This mean an unemployment rate for young adult females at 13.7 percent and for young adult males it was 8.9 percent.

The total number of unemployed individuals in October 2024 was fifty-one-thousand-three-hundred.

Females make up sixty-percent of those unemployed.

In October 2024, there were six-hundred-eighty-seven-thousand-five-hundred individuals outside the labour force

Of that number only twenty-nine-thousand-four hundred were classified as part of the potential labour force.

That’s 4.3 percent of individuals seeking employment but not available to work, or available for work but not
looking for a job.