Total employment in the Cayman Islands in 2011 was estimated at 35,267, higher by 0.8 percent compared to 2010. Caymanian and non-Caymanian employment rose by 1.1 and 0.6 percent respectively compared to a year ago.

“I am pleased that the labour market has improved last year, and I expect it to further make progress this year,” notes the Hon. Premier and Finance Minister Mr. McKeeva Bush.

The final results of the Labour Force Survey, released today by the Economics and Statistics Office, also present an analysis of Cayman’s labour force, unemployment rate, and persons who are not economically active.

With the growth in employment, the estimated number of unemployed edged up by 23 persons only, thus unemployment rate went up only slightly from 6.2 percent in 2010 to 6.3 percent in 2011. Caymanian and non-Caymanian unemployment rates were unchanged from at 9.8 percent and 3.1 percent, respectively.

The top five occupations in 2011 were service and sales workers (19.4% of total employment), elementary occupation (16.3%), professionals (15.1%), technicians and associate professionals (13.9%) and craft and related trade workers (10.3%).

About 50 percent of the employed populations were engaged in one of the following industries: wholesale and retail trade (12.0%), activities of households as employers (10.7%), construction (10.6%), financial services (9.7%) and public administration activities (7.8%).