May 2016 Financial News

Unemployment was 3.5 per cent at year end

May 11, 2016

At the end of 2015, T&T’s unemployment rate was 3.5 per cent.

The latest available data from the Central Statistical Office shows that the overall unemployment rate for increased from 3.4 per cent in the third quarter 2015.

From a gender perspective, the unemployment rate among males increased from 2.8 per cent to 3.4 per cent and females decreased from 4.2 per cent to 3.6 per cent. Compared to the corresponding quarter in 2014 the data showed that overall unemployment increased from 3.3 per cent to 3.5 per cent with the male unemployment rate increasing from 2.9 per cent to 3.4 per cent and the female unemployment rate decreasing from 3.8 per cent to 3.6 per cent.

The labour force registered 643,900 persons at the end of the fourth quarter---an increase of 1,800 or 0.3 per cent from the third quarter 2015. This increase was reflected among both males and females. The data shows that males increased by 800 or 0.2 per cent while females increased by 1,000 or 0.4% per cent.

The overall labour force participation rate increased to 60.4 per cent. Compared with the corresponding quarter in 2014, that overall rate decreased from 61.1 per cent to 60.4 per cent.

There was an increase of 1,400 or 0.2 per cent in the number of persons with jobs, in the quarter under review. From a gender perspective, the number of employed males decreased by 1,200 or 0.3 per cent while the number of employed females increased by 2,600 or 1.0 per cent.

When compared to the corresponding quarter a year earlier, the data showed a decrease of 8,200 or 1.3 per cent in the total number of employed persons in T&T.

Source:
Trinidad Guardian
Wednesday May 11, 2016

http://www.guardian.co.tt/business/2016-05-11/unemployment-was-35-cent-year-end