Cayman’s jobless total is so low, it is considered full employment – but women were more likely to be out of work, a labour force survey has found.
Economics and Statistics Office figures showed that, in a labour force of 62,743, just 1,740, or 2.8%, were unemployed.
Standards vary, but economists generally consider jobless rates of between 4% and 6% as full employment.
The ESO statistics showed there were 945 women, representing 3.2%, without work, compared with 795 men, for a 2.4% unemployment rate. Despite the large number of women without work, women overall made up 47.1% of the workforce, compared with 52.9% for men.
The figures were contained in the latest Labour Force Survey Report for spring of this year.
The biggest chunk of the labour force was people aged from 35-44 (28.7%) followed by 25-34 (24.4%) and 45-54 (22.1%).
Almost 52% of people with jobs earned $2,400 or more a month, with a higher proportion of men (55.7%) at that salary compared with women (47.4%).
Close to a quarter of employed people, 24.4%, took home up to $2,399 a month, with 23.8% earning between $2,400 and $4,799.
A total of 14.2% of working people earned between $4,800 and $7,199.
About 1.7% earned between $12,000 and $14,399, with 0.8% taking home between $14,400 and and $16,799 a month.
A total of 2.6% – 1,060 people – earned in excess of $16,800 a month.
The 22,824 college and university graduates made up 36.4% of the total, followed by 18,431 people (29.4%) with a high school education and about 18,330 people (29.2%) with a post-secondary qualification.
Just 0.9% – 587 people – had an education level classed as “primary and below”.
Non-Caymanians accounted for 53.5% of the workforce, while 37.2% were Caymanian and 9.3% were permanent residents with the right to work.
Expected outcome
According to the survey, the total labour force participation rate was 83.6%, with permanent residents with right to work having the highest labour force participation rate of 93%. For non-Caymanians, that rate was 92.3%.
“This outcome aligns with expectations, considering the work permit-oriented immigration system,” the survey said, adding, “In contrast, Caymanians had the lowest [labour force participation rate] at 72%.”
And the higher the education level, the more likely people were to be part of the workforce.
The labour force participation rate was almost 92% for people with a college or university education, but about 37% for those with a “primary and below” level.
The survey report added that people aged 25 to 54 were also the most likely to be working or job-hunting.
“The age specific [labour force participation rates] ranged from 86.3% among people between 55 and 64 years to 95.6% among those of 25 to 34 years of age.”
Males compared to females
Males had a higher rate of labour force participation at 86.2%, compared to females at 80.8%.
“This trend was consistent when considering educational attainment as well, with males displaying greater [labour force participation rates] across all levels of education compared to females,” the report said.
More than 90% of the employed labour force was made up of people aged between 25 and 64.
Most of the employed labour force, 55,862 people or 91.6%, worked for someone else and 3,308 or 5.4% were self-employed with employees.
The 1,657 sole traders – the self-employed with no staff – made up just 2.7% of the working labour force.
The survey added, “Among employed males, 11.3% were self-employed compared with 4.6 percent among females.
“Furthermore, Caymanians (16.7%) were most likely to own a business in comparison with [permanent residents with rights to work] and non-Caymanians (1.5%).
Just five occupations made up more than three-quarters of total employment (77.5%).
Professionals were the largest group at 19.7%, followed by service and sales workers at 18.2%.
Those classed as ‘elementary occupations’ – largely manual workers – comprised 13.7%.
Craft and tradespeople made up another 13.2% and managers accounted for 12.7%.
The average working week was 43.3 hours, with men working 2.1 hours more a week than women.
Non-Caymanians averaged 44.3 hours a week and permanent residents with rights to work logged 43.5 hours on the job.
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