More employment created in second quarter of 2003

Even though Central Statistical Office (CSO) figures showed an overall small increase in unemployment for the year between the second quarter of  2002 and the second quarter of 2003, the figures also showed that more jobs had been created in the second quarter of 2003.

The number of persons with jobs in the second quarter of 2003 increased by 3,900 or 0.8 percent, moving from 523,000 employed persons in the previous quarter, to 527,200 employed persons in the quarter under review. When compared with the corresponding quarter of  2002, the number of persons with jobs rose by 8,100 or 1.6 percent. Of all occupational groups in the period under review, legislators, senior officials and managers reflected the highest increase in persons with jobs, moving upward by 6,700 or 20.3 percent, followed by elementary occupations, 4,700 or 4.0 percent. Service workers, however, showed a decrease of 3,800 or 4.9 percent when compared with the first quarter of 2003.

An analysis of the second quarter 2003 data for employed persons by ‘type of worker’ indicated an overall decrease of 3,400 or 0.8 percent in ‘paid employees’ over the first quarter 2003. The CSO report stated that mainly responsible for this were decreases of 3,900 or 12.8 percent in ‘government state enterprises’ and 1,300 or 0.5 percent in the non-government enterprises. Of the other type of workers, ‘own account workers’, recorded an increase of 6,800 or 9.1 percent when compared with the first quarter of 2003.

Increases in the number of persons with jobs following an analysis of the data recorded in the second quarter of 2003 by industry, were found in the following industrial groups:
• Community, social and personal services — 11,300 or 7.5 percent
• Transport storage and communication —  4,200 or 10.9 percent.
• Other, agriculture, forestry, hunting and fishing — 1,500 or 6.4 percent.
However, there were decreases in finance, insurance, real estate and business services of 3,600 or 7.9 percent; sugar cultivation and manufacture, 3,000 or 21.1 percent; wholesale and retail trade, restaurant and hotels, 2,500 or 2.3 percent.