Unemployment Rate in the Second Half of 2018 Falls to 2.8%

Estimates from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) Fall 2018 show the unemployment rate (the proportion of unemployed persons to total labour force) at 2.8%, the lowest for the Cayman Islands since Fall 2006 when it was 2.6%. It is also significantly lower compared to the unemployment rates in Fall 2017 (4.9%) and in Spring 2018 (3.4%).

The fall in the unemployment rate occurred amidst a rise in the total labour force by 7.5% to reach 46,178 persons. The employed labour force was estimated at 44,887 persons, an increase of 9.9% compared to Fall 2017. The unemployed labour force was estimated at 1,291 persons, a decline of 38.1% from the level in the same period a year ago.       

Employed Caymanians was estimated at 20,751 reflecting a growth rate of 7.7% over the Fall 2017 estimate. The number of unemployed Caymanians declined by 34.3% to settle at 996 persons, resulting in an unemployment rate of 4.6%.

The unemployment rate among Non-Caymanians also fell from 2.1% in December 2017 to 0.5%, while among Permanent Residents (PR) with rights to work the unemployment rate moved up from 4.4% to 4.7%.

The LFS Report also presents the population estimate of the Islands as of December 2018 – this grew by 3.8% from December 2017 to reach 65,813. The Caymanian population rose by 2.3% to 36,705. The PR population reached 5,940 persons as compared to 5,488 persons in Fall 2017. The Non-Caymanian population is estimated at 23,168, a growth of 5.1% relative to the estimated population as at December 2017.

More information on “The Cayman Islands’ Labour Force Survey Fall 2018 Report” is available at www.eso.ky.