Labour Force Survey: Unemployment Rate At 7%
[Updated] According to a report released today [Jan 17] by the Department of Statistics, last year the unemployment rate stood at 7% and the median gross annual employment income rose 6% to $62,211.
The overall working population increased by 115 persons in 2013 when compared with 2012, with the number of employed persons growing from 35,874 in 2012 to 35,989 in 2013. Male and female workers increased by 42 and 73, respectively.
According to the report, the unemployment rate declined from 8% to 7% in 2013 with a total of 2,569 persons reporting that they were seeking employment.
In 2013, the median gross annual employment income rose 6% from $58,698 to $62,211. The average number of hours spent working per week rose from 38 in 2013 to 41 in 2013.
The report said, “The 2013 data show that there were 27,309 Bermudians and 5,443 non-Bermudians in the workforce.
“The proportion of Bermudian workers at 76% was identical to that reported in 2012, while the share of non-Bermudian workers also held constant at 15%. The employment of non-Bermudian spouses dipped by 323 workers reducing its share of the workforce from 6% to 5%.”
Complimentary copies of the 2013 Labour Force Survey Executive Report 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 full Labour Force Survey follows below [PDF here]:
Update 1.47pm: Minister of Home Affairs Michael Fahy said, “While we appreciate that the Labour Force Survey is simply an indicator, we are cautiously optimistic based on today’s information that there are signs that the economy is stabilizing. The Government will continue to implement programmes and initiatives aimed at stimulating our economy, which will eventually lead to job growth.”
Interesting. Would an examination of payroll reveal the same stats? I wonder how many Bermudians have lost that second or even third job? I think that would be a more revealing picture.
Great news! Since this increase, how of the employed are Bermudians? What is the percentage increase or decrease of Bermudians employed since 2012?
We want to see those numbers.
That’s all in the report. To quote the article:
The report said, “The 2013 data show that there were 27,309 Bermudians and 5,443 non-Bermudians in the workforce.
“The proportion of Bermudian workers at 76% was identical to that reported in 2012, while the share of non-Bermudian workers also held constant at 15%.
You’d also need to know how many Bermudians left full time education and schools and entered the Labour Force and how many Bermudians retired and exited the Labour force to calculate that.
I would have thought based on election/campaign promises that the percentage would have decreased significantly. Didnt the OBA promise 2000 jobs? I understand that was a lofty promise but I don’t feel like even 200 jobs have been created.
They promised 200o jobs, yes, but not in one year. Remember that they will be in power for another 5 years. We all know what the PLP did in 13 years so let’s have some patience please.
That was over the term of office 4-5 years. Stop being disingenious.
Oh for heaven’s sake ‘Watching” – stop being so disengenious! It was OVER A FIVE YEAR PERIOD not in just one year!!!! Ask the same question in four years from now.
Yes it was over 5 years, but one would have expected on average of 400 per year to achieve that. I don’t believe that 400 jobs were created within the last year. They have already been in power 1 year and 1 month. The clock is ticking.
Wow you really are just pissed your party did not win. What was your pay check tied to the PLP being in Government or something?
LOL Gambling is not go for you.
Keep watching, watching. Maybe you’ll be one that doesn’t get a job!
In the lead up to election the PLP made no promises about job creation or very little else really and thus laid bare the fact that they had no clue or confidence in themselves that they had any idea of how to turn things around. I liked that the OBA boldly laid down a number 2000, and now are working diligently towards that. If you had imagined that all you do is divide that number by 5 or assumed that the 2000 jobs would just fall out of the sky within the first year you need to start doing some critical thinking. But the reality is you don’t really want to make any sense of it, just criticise for the hell of it.
That would be fine if each year could be measured the same way, which they cannot. As the the OBA has had to spend it’s first year (and more going into 2014), cleaning up the PLP MESS then your 400 average does not jibe given the state of Bermuda’s economy and the debt PLP left Bermuda in. HOWEVER AS THE the OBA rights the almost sunken ship Bermuda, and continues with it’s PLP cleanup, and as the confidence and improvement in the ship Bermuda continues, then year over year our economic forecast will improve as will the employment levels. REMEMBER What the PLP took 14 years to destroy you cannt expect the OBA to put back together again in one year!!! Again I repeat come back again in four years!
A point to remember is this survey typically takes place in August I believe which means the data is out of date and it would not be for the one year the OBA have been in Government. Personally I would have hoped for more given the number of permits issued and the number of new companies that have registered during 2013. My theory is that more jobs will have been created in the calendar year 2013, but that this survey has not captured the data to prove that. Time will tell how well they are doing at creating jobs.
The chart for total workforce on page 3 is totally misleading as it does not have a zero baseline. They make the changes look a lot bigger than they really are.
Thinking about what you posted and totally get your point, BUT….is it reasonable to include ZERO as a value for total workforce ?? That is a position that will never happen… Looks like the author has used 35,000 as a base. What would be better ? 30,000, 28,000…. Would we ever get to the latter. If not, then it is irrelevant info ????
Perhaps a % change included with the chart would have helped the meaning.
… didn’t Coredell Riley say we’d lose 2000 jobs this year? Talk about off-base–again!
That’s par for the course for Riley. Is he ever right?
There you guys go – always attacking the messenger when you don’t like the message.
Um. Aren’t they attacking the messenger because… you know… the message is wrong?
It ok when they do it……………………
LOL pathetic
You mean when they are wrong?
We’re not even out of the first month yet mate…. There’s still plenty of time for that prediction to some degree come true. There’s a lot to come but as the saying goes, “Time shall tell”.
OK, something’s not adding up here. According to the information above there where 3,305 unemployed people in 2012 & in 2013 there where 2,569 unemployed people. However take a look at the employed numbers, there where 35,874 people employed in 2012 & 35,989 employed people in 2013. So there are only 115 new jobs but there is a difference of 736 more people in the unemployed comparison for 2012 & a difference of 621 more people in the workforce for 2012. This means there where 1,357 more people factored into the equation for 2012 so where did they go? Retired?? Either way this clearly shows the fudged perception being portrayed by these statistics in trying to give the image that the problem is getting better when in reality it’s not an apples to apples comparison.
Also not to mention there was a smaller participation rate for this survey for 2013 when compared to 2012 so the field of actual people surveyed was smaller.
I don’t think ‘participation rate’ means what you think it means.
You are indeed correct, Mr. James. The turnaround in jobs, in just twelve months, is nothing short of miraculous, if this is indeed the case. As one who watches employment data quite closely, I have noticed, with this current dataset, some things which appear to be ‘outliers’ and which require further explanation. I have brought these to the attention of the Statistics Department and would rather wait until they get back to me before commenting further.
they must have included full time criminal as a full time occupation
Oh, must they have?
Not like you’ll back that up with any evidence, right?
You just don’t want things to get better for Bermuda while your party isn’t Government. Think about how messed up that way of thinking is.
evidence you want evidence
they state that the number of unemployed on the island is 2,569 persons out of a labour force of 38,558
now they further define the unemployed as a person 16 years and older who during the reference period was not working but were willing and able to work for pay and were actually seeking work
so based on this definition if you were not working and not willing and not able to work for pay and were not actually seeking work then you wouldn’t be counted as unemployed or a member of the labour force
sounds to me like a whole lot of people haven’t been counted in particular the criminal element
if you want to talk politics the office of statistics should be taken out of Cabinet House to avoid any accusations of cooking the stats for political purposes
this shouldn’t be surprising especially when the Premier says publicly that there are jobs available for ‘qualified’ Bermudians
it would appear everything in Bermuda is qualified in particular political statements
Those are standard definitions of employment parameters used worldwide. They haven’t invented anything here. Globally used measures in this report.
The terms and definitions are the globally used ones. Categories were not invented for this report. Do I like economic definitions? I think they can be improved upon, but as a like for like comparison globally for cross sectional and time series analysis, they are what is used.
(I thought I’d posted something on this earlier…must not have hit submit button)
So… No. You don’t have any evidence of your claim. Got it. You were just whingeing and trying to cast the government in a bad like.
only a fool would read an ironic and tongue in cheek comment and request evidence to back it up
its obvious the survey didn’t include full time criminal as a full time occupation
it did however based on their definition of the unemployed didn’t include them in the survey
there appears to be a huge distinction between who is considered unemployed and who is considered simply as non-working
if the OBA accepts these statics then there may be an acceptance or perhaps resignation on their part that there is a significant percentage of the population who are unwilling or unable to work and are therefore best written off or marginalized
I remember Bob Richards quoting Sir Henry Tucker saying that Bermuda has a small percentage of people who are unemployed and a significant percentage of people who are unemployable
its this line of thinking which continues to this day that allows people to accept this empirical data when the day to day realities say something vastly different
its time to put the ukulele down and start thinking critically if you want to participate in moving things forward
too many work permits active for little jobs…. I can drive a truck, I can wash pot, clean offices….I will work for $15/hr
did you apply or you just shooting your mouth…….
LOL
Swing voter if you have the qualification you “should” technically be able to displace any person on a work permit once up for renewal. The government can not tell companies who to hire but they can limit who comes in on a work permit if there is skilled Bermudians. The only way to find out if this is working is to apply to these jobs using Bermuda Job Board http://www.bermudajobboard.bm/. You can always take a job below your qualification as many have done to keep a float, this is an option until a. Work Permit Frees up or b. Economy improves for your skill set.
Remember the days when you could leave a job in the morning and be employed in the afternoon. No shortage of part-time hussles and tons of expats and new freinds playing sports and social clubs. Now we are using terms like underemployed and job boards. I would ask what happened but would get tons of PLP UBP OBA bloggers all blaming each other instead of working towards the good old days.
What’s your point?
Work permits are only “active” because far too many Bermudians have refused, and even still continue to refuse work for anything less than $25 an hour. Minimum wage workers in the US (no “work permits” there, just new immigrants and good ole’ Americans)get anywhere from $7.25 to $9.25 an hour as a minimum wage.
Bermuda’s “minimum wage” at $15 per hour is anywhere from 100% to 65% higher than the US. Why is is we struggle to fill those “in the trenches” jobs with Bermudians? The answer is clear to all save those that don’t want to hear it.
No disrespect to those Bermudians who do work at a good standard, reliably, diligently and proudly every day for $15 an hour, but it is the exception not the norm.
Workers heal thyself.
So now.
unemployment has abated and shrunk after ballooning spectacularly during the previous regime.
Work permits are down to a multi decade low (for the expat haters out there)
Average wages have risen.
Yet there is still the hum of entitled whining from certain quarters.
There really is no pleasing some.
This is a total farce and nonsense survey..10% increases in salary? What planet are they looking at? Unemployment among spouses of Bermudians quadrupled? Not worth the paper it is written on and a shameful embarrassment. Fire the people who did the survey and who are the 700 people they interviewed?
It is funny that if you speak up against OBA, you are a mad PLP supporter.
There is a very large section of the island that do not like OBA or PLP. So when the next election roles around, believe me when I tell you, there will be change. We live in a time where immediate results are expected. So for all those that want to continue to make excuses for both parties STOP. Take off your blinders and hold your own parties accountable. PLP has it’s issues and OBA as well.
The fact is as a young Bermudian neither of these parties represent what I want to see. “A Better Bermuda for All Bermudians” is what the Future of Bermuda want to see. We want to see All Bermudians working.
Our economy has been shrinking and one of the reasons being, Bermudians are unemployed. Neither party is willing/able to work for All Bermudians. To me PLP has been geared towards lower middle and lower income Bermudians and UBP/OBA has been geared towards upper middle and upper income Bermudians. A party that can cater to ALL will win the next election.
A third party is way over do for this country. The next election will be very interesting as the OBA have not kept to their word on many things. They need to understand the burden of proof lies on them and not the PLP. All eyes are on them right now. We need results now, not four years from now. The PLP need to step up and hold their own accountable for the way things went under their watch.
If we are to go forward as a country we need to work together, employ our own and improve our education system to be competitive on a global scale. Greed has plagued this island for way too long. The finger pointing needs to stop. Personal accountability needs to be a factor for all of us.
If the ‘ship’ was on fire or sinking would you wait four years to do something? Well stop the BS “…OBA has only been in power for a year…” because Bermuda is a ‘ship’ that is on fire and sinking
It is painfully obvious that the main detractors of the OBA are “employees”! The folks with no”skin in the game”
They are the ones who only collect a paycheck, ones whose decisions do not impact directly the bottom line, the ones who are not struggling to provide a service with an apathetic workforce. I am tired of the complaints.
“IF YOU ARE NOT PART OF THE SOLUTION, YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM”
UNEMPLOYMENT – No Quick fix here -
I don’t care what political party is running the show today – the unemployment problem won’t get down
to 3% anytime soon.— were looking at 2 -3 years from now,
This situation could well be the demise of the OBA too if the situation hasn’t improved by the next 2 years.
In the meantime the creators of this ecconomic situation will be looking to step back in power and kick
out the mass load of Asian cashiers.dishwashers,waiters,laundry workers,cleaners which they had bought to Bermuda
in there 14 years of power to make room for employment.
It’s all about the a Roof over your head and Bread and Butter.
Still – 2000+ people out of work is a serious thing.
Does anyone know how you have an employed number that is greater than the labour force number and still have unemployment?
Where is that in the report? Or is it a question?
I guess if a number of the population have 3 jobs and they are counted as 3 emplyed persons. In this report it is counted at one person. It is not on jobs, but on people.
These figures came out of a one-time survey of 700 households and are extrapolations from the results of the survey. The annual Employment Briefs come out of an annual exercise in which all employers etc… participate. So two different answers.
Look at 2012 where the Survey reports 8,598 non-Bermudians, spouses, and PRCs. Then look at the previously published Employment Brief for 2012 which reports 10,311 non-Bermudians, spouses, and PRCs. That’s a huge year-on-year discrepancy. A 16% discrepancy.
Navin Johnson is correct. These survey numbers are of little value. Perhaps should not even have been published.
BERMUDA’S ECONOMIC SUMMIT.
and you are all invited.
HERE IS THE 10% SOLUTION FOR THE ENTIRE ISLAND.
With the advent of the computer you would think that the cost of doing business would be reduced or is it and increase in profiteering.
Quite possible why some of you are out of a job, I have been there and I feel your pain ,this relates to Bermuda’s high cost of living.
We have Super Children coming out of school with a slim chance for employment very few seem to want to give them a chance.
This recession or ” TIME OUT ” could be the best thing that has happened to us, you are sending a message to the big Corporations, because the sky rocketing coats of living has got to stop some where. Don’t tell me it will find its level.
Sooner or later we will be paying $19.99 for a loaf of bread and $ $999.99 per night to stay in a 2 star hotel ,at one over priced self service restaurant I had to pay 17% Gratuities,for what ?
There are some countries where there economies have gone through the roof.
There are countries where the minimum wage which is far below ours at least they are working.
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE ALMIGHTY DOLLAR.
HERE IS THE 10 % SOLUTION FOR THE ENTIRE ISLAND AND FOR EVERY DOLLAR THAT CHANGES HANDS.
BERMUDA COST OF LIVING HAS TO BE REDUCED………. NOW !
THIS IS A “COST REDUCTION” NOT A DISCOUNT!
To start with the Government has to take the lead first on everything including Taxes; Import Duty and T.C.D. etc.etc. No And’s If’s or But’s !
This Cost Reduction must reflect on ALL Goods and Services, including B.E.L.Co; all Banks; Insurance companies; Store owners ; the Trades; Doctors; Lawyers to name a few, basically every body take a 10 % cut on every thing and that’s the thin end of the wedge.
Hotels, your room cut is 20% and one free nights after every 5 nights . We have to get our Visitors back, Hotels and Guest houses have their addresses. The secret is MARKETING.
An average person had to be able to afford a vacation here.
I am not going to stand by and watch Bermuda go down the tube.
An average person “HAS” to be able to afford a vacation here.
First os all this is not a political issue. So all the OBA and PLP talk can stop.
Secong this is the annual empoyment survey not the HES survey that was based on 700 people. Get ur facts straight.
What does jump out at me is that the median income has rose by 6% and the median hours worked has rose by 8% so there has actualy been a pay cut across the board in hourly income.