Bermuda Job Market Employment Report

August 30, 2011

Today [Aug.30] the Department of Statistics released the 2011 edition of the Bermuda Job Market Employment Briefs. The release highlights the main findings of the 2010 Annual Employment Survey.

In 2010, Bermuda’s employers reported a decrease of 1,423 jobs. There were 38,097 jobs counted last year compared to 39,520 in 2009. The number of jobs held by male workers contracted with a loss of 1,017 positions.

This was more than double the 406 positions lost by female jobholders between 2009 and 2010. The number of jobs held by Bermudians declined by 542 jobs, while positions filled by non-Bermudians and non-Bermudian spouses of Bermudians decreased by 867 and 13, respectively. In contrast, positions held by permanent resident certificate holders held steady increasing by only one filled job during 2010.

Employment levels in the hotel industry continued to decline, shifting down from 2,719 in 2009 to 2,432 in 2010. The construction industry provided 3,042 jobs in 2010; a loss of 446 positions or a 14.7 per cent drop from 3,488 jobs posted in 2009. Employment in the International Business sector dipped by 144 positions or 3.4 per cent from 2009.

The profile of median annual income by race shows that White employees earned $77,326 in 2010. This earning level was $23,600 higher than the median income of Black job holders. On the other hand, persons of mixed and other races were paid an average annual income of $50,648.

Complimentary copies of the Employment Brief are available at the Department of Statistics, which is located on the third floor of the Cedar Park Centre Building, 48 Cedar Avenue in Hamilton.

The 12-page report is below, click ‘Fullscreen’ for greater clarity:

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Comments (38)

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  1. Sigh… why can they not break down earnings based upon race and Bermudian status rather than just race?

    • Onion says:

      read the report it is also broken down by Bermudian status

      • Onion,

        It seems I was not clear enough, I meant the cross of race and Bermudian status together, not separately.

        Ie.

        Black Bermudian: xx,xxx
        White Bermudian: xx,xxx
        Other Bermudian: xx,xxx

        Black non-Bermudian: xx,xxx
        White non-Bermudian: xx,xxx
        Other non-Bermudian: xx,xxx

        By lumping all together by race and then by Bermudian status it makes it far more difficult to do a proper analysis and paints a false picture.

        I wrote about this back in 2007:
        http://www.21square.com/2009/09/not-so-black-and-white.html

        • Onion says:

          Ok I misunderstood. Interesting article from that link. To be honest with you I’ve always told people to be wary of statistics. You can make data say anything you want it to by sampling or breaking it down different ways. As you point out you can get the wrong impression.

          • Black Soil says:

            This is good stuff, that said you can torture the data all you want. It won’t be any solice to the 2-3 thousand who are unemployed. And the news is not going to get any better. The budget was a joke. The PLP govt is bankrupt (in more ways than one).

        • Allan G says:

          That’s available in the Census data….

          • All the more reason it should be made available here as well. 10+ years isn’t a good enough increment if we’re serious about identifying and resolving racial disparities.

        • Correction, I wrote about it in 2009

  2. Black Soil says:

    The foreigners are to blame. This is not PLP mismanagement! Foreigners have been ruling Bermuda, not the PLP. The PLP should not be held accountable. Vote for the PLP and get more of the same.

    • John Doe says:

      Black Soil, maybe you should go back to school and get an education so that you can learn to read and maybe understand the facts which are out there. Without foreigners where do you think most peoples pay check is going to come from. If anything we should be trying to get more here, just think for every foreigner how much money they pump into the system, and how many Bermudian jobs they create.

      • Me says:

        I think Black Soil was being sarcastic.

        • Black Soil says:

          I thought my sarcasm was about as heavy as it could get. Thanks “Me”. Just hope the sarcasm made a point. If you want more of the same, vote PLP.

  3. OMG says:

    Haven’t read the report and not sure if I will, as someone who has been out of work for over a year now, these types of reports do not phase me at all. I really don’t care who is to blame, just please try and get the unemployed back to work. I know that they are trying all these different programs, but are they really working? sigh!

  4. Street talk says:

    ok…So Non-Bermudians have almost as many jobs as Bermudians and are paid more..Go figure! No wonder they would rather hire a foreigner and at the same time say Bermudians are dumb..smh

    • Al says:

      Non-Bermudians in international business tend to have skills that Bermudians don’t have and therefore are paid more. So we’d expect them to be paid more.

      All else being equal companies would overwhelmingly prefer to hire a Bermudian because it’s easier and cheaper.

      • Stop Pointing ya Fingers says:

        Says who??? I work in the international sector and to say that “Non-Bermudians in international business tend to have skills that Bermudians don’t have and therefore are paid more. So we’d expect them to be paid more.” is a bunch of crap! plop, now smell the stink!!!

        I sit at my desk and watch the new recruits come in from overseas and I must tell you, they are just as inexperienced as the Bermudians. Difference is, they do not look like the Bermudians. Thats what I see. Plain and simple, anyone that is hired has to be trained in the way that current business does business.

        • Real Talk (original) says:

          Ditto.

        • Another pov says:

          It’s not so much a matter of them ‘not looking like Bermudians’ (and maybe you can tell us exactly what ‘Bermudians’ look like ?)

          It more than likely has to do with them not ‘acting’ like ‘Bermudians’..

          If I read your little implication properly , I have a number of ‘foreign workers’ at my place of IB also , and guess what ? They ‘look’ like ‘Bermudians’ …Difference is , they don’t ‘act’ like them !

        • ???really?? says:

          …are you trying to compare formal education and industry knowledge to Bermudian street smarts? Just because someone don’t know they verds don’t mean they stupid ya know. cha….

      • Flikel says:

        This is so not true. Interational business does not have a strong preference for hiring Bermudians.

        I save seen many ex-pats who are straight out of school, with zero experience, get hired over the numerous Bermudian applicants.

        I have seen folks hire their inexperienced buddy from Ireland because he is a ‘good lad’.

        Far too often we are mislead into thinking that if a person is an expat, then they have a unique set of skills. This is often not the case, many of these folks have difficulty finding jobs in their own country and are not highly skilled compared to the Bermudian applicants. When they come to Bermuda, they are elevated to ‘all-star’ status.

        • Experienced Bermudian says:

          “Stop Pointing ya Finga” and “Flikel” have made good points. But I will add that one of the reasons why IB likes to hire the “good lad” or the inexperienced non-Bermudian is because they will do as they are told or their contract will be yanked!!

        • Street talk says:

          Exactly, this is what Bermudians are told !! This is a way to keep the Black peoples heads down to think we are not experienced enough for these jobs that get automatically given to “a lad” from another country. Its not fair and Government can’t do anything about it. Quite frankly no one can. Where are all the people who normally bash an article information about race?

          Can’t say nothing right now because this is the type of article they fear !!

          • LOL (original) says:

            Funny how many White Bermudians do you see in top jobs in said companies? Just say’n oh and I do not count those who are now married to Bermudians in this number. Still this could point to race but not necessarily Bermudian racism with the exception of the complain tent.

            LOL

        • jury says:

          @ Flikel I totally agree with you.

        • Riley B King says:

          Flikel, you have never seen an expat hired straight out of college with no experience. You’re just talking absolute rubbish.

  5. Just for once says:

    I’d like to see figures for ‘Bermudians’ only . Black and white if so , but leave the wage figures for guest workers (especially ‘white’ ones ) as a seperate report.

    Then , and only then would we see how huge this ‘disparity’ really is , or isn’t .

    • Allan G says:

      That woudn’t accurately reflect the labour market. The data that you would like to see will be included in the Census which will most likely come out early next year. Remember this is an employment brief.

  6. S Brown says:

    I find it a bit distrubing that the median income for Bermudians is $55,264 gross. By the time payroll tax, health insurance, what is the net? After rent you are virtually broke.

    The gap is widening.

    • Not Surprised says:

      agreed. everything goes up but you salary. but in this economy i guess we should be greatful to even be working.

  7. Sorry but you all can’t have a job in Bermuda BECAUSE you are Bermudian!!!!!
    I hope you know that by now!! just look around only ex-pats are the only ones working and living the good live here in your Bermuda, why because you all have
    let it happen!! its very sad, but its there BERMUDA NOW!! What a joke you all are.

    you need to see how it work in the CARIBBEAN you could Learn from them.

    • Truth be told ... says:

      The days that a Bermudian was guaranteed a job by virtue of the simple fact that he/she is Bermudian are long gone. Very long gone.

  8. jumpup says:

    they are just numbers… get a grip! the way you interpret them indicates much about your personality. race…. why not break them down to how many people have blue shirts… then we could chastise them too…cause we all know red shirts are perfect… if your looking for a reason to hate some one you’ll find it! No matter what color you are…. Think about it.

  9. street wise says:

    Too bad the PLP don’t have an effing clue how to govern!! They are rank amateurs who refuse to take advice. How stupid is that?! If the Gov’t had known better and had not built their Capital Projects all at once – Berkeley, Heritage Pier, TCD buildings, Courthouse, etc – when the private construction sector was super-hot, we would not be in this predicament now. Any Government worth it’s salt knows that it should build Capital Projects during recessionary or down times, when private sector work dries up. That way we would keep lots of people employed during our entirely PLP-created local recession. Plus, if the greedy, immoral Brownites hadn’t stolen most of our tax money, Bermuda would be in fairly good shape today. Any economist would tell you that.

    Remember, a vote for the PLP is a vote into FINANCIAL SLAVERY!!

    • street talk says:

      I havn’t heard so much garbage like this in some time. You say PLP caused a “local recession”? hmm… So the world recession came before the local recession or after?

      Well, you have to blame someone right?

      • In General says:

        I don’t think that is what street wise was saying…..

        I think he/she was stating that history has taught us that job creation gets your out of recessions/depressions. If you look at the Great Depression, what got the US out of the crisis in the 1930′s was that President Franklin Roosevelt created jobs through government capital projects such as building highways, bridges ect.

        What street wise was saying is that we have just had some large buildings and projects that were build and done while we were in a peak economy, and employment was at 120%……I agree with street wise. If some of these projects were deferred to lets say now – when we have unemployment we could have gotten some of these people back into the work force and assist with pulling us out of recession.

        A recession is when the economy retracts because of lack of spending. This occurs or is occuring right now because people have lost jobs, and those that have jobs are scared to lose their jobs so are saving rather then spending.

        If people have jobs, they have money, if people have money, they spend, and this stimulates the economy. A good Governement looks for ways to do something like this during recessions.

  10. trees says:

    financial slavery, man so true that! Yes there is a global recession, but some areas are affected more than others, how places cope and ride the recession makes the difference. Streetwise is correct on his points, plus the PLP also did there best to make life difficult for foreign and local firms wishing to do business here. Remember when they hiked the tax for one year then went back when they realised it backfired! The shame is all the weath the island accumulated over the years previous to the PLP is now gone, it’ll take a massive change in governing, lots of hard work and a rethink in mindsets and norms to be where we once were.

  11. You all 90% of you are ex-pat writing this sh!t, trust me you to will go soon from
    Bermuda and then you will have to find a real job AND YOU KNOW IT WILL NOT BE EASY!!! you have had it good for a long,long time here but its over you all have
    tore the a** out of Bermuda. the drums are beating!!!! pay back its coming!!!

    Try working were you come from??

    See ya xzbbjaa

  12. Emeka47 says:

    The Famos REPORTS, suppose to make me feel GOOD!
    In 2010, Bermuda’s employers reported a decrease of 1,423 jobs.
    This does not mean that all jobs losses were reported by the employers, nor does this figure take into account the employees who don’t bother to report to a Government that does not help them find a way to live in this expensive place. Between that report and today GET REAL!! There are thousands of Bermudians out of work as of Sept 2011. Your 2010 statistics can’t smooth over the realtity of the current crisis we are in today. Yes there will be those of you who will say ‘save for a rainy day’ but how do you save when it’s raining all the time everyday!! A salary of $400 a week can’t buy food, pay rent,lights,clothing., medications……..Save WHAT!