The Minister of Cabinet Office with Responsibility for Government Reform, the Hon. Lovitta Foggo JP MP today released the latest available employment figures prepared by the Department of Statistics.

The 2017 edition of the Bermuda Job Market Employment Briefs highlight the main findings of the 2016 Annual Employment Survey.

The Minister noted: “Reports of this nature are important for governments in their role as planners and policy-makers.  The Bermuda Job Market Employment Briefs were initially prepared for distribution in May, but the report was not released at that time.”

“This report provides a broad estimate of jobs in the Bermuda labour market by selected demographics, industrial and occupational groups.  It examines employment changes between the years 2016 and 2015, as measured by a survey of more than 4,000 employers (4,054 business surveyed) during a specified period of the year.”

The 2016 job figure was 33,481 and represents the survey’s first recorded year-to-year increase since 2008 - an increase of 162 jobs compared to 33,319 jobs in 2015.

A cause for worry is that the report highlights that jobs held by Bermudians dropped from 23,576 in the 2015 survey period to 23,494 in 2016, a decline of 82 positions.

Meanwhile, a category of non-Bermudian workers – those who are neither PRCs nor spouses of Bermudians - spurred the job growth with 269 additional jobs from 6,990 in 2015 to 7,259 in 2016.

By major divisions of economic activity, the strongest job growth was registered by restaurants, cafes and bars and by retail trade with increases of 185 jobs and 111 jobs, respectively. The other community, social and personal services sector posted an increase of 105 jobs. The public administration sector shed 169 posts.

The 2017 Edition of the Employment Briefs together with a companion document, Labour Market Indicators, can be found on the Government portal (www.gov.bm/employment-statistics).