Unemployment hits new low

Tuesday 13 January 2015

The number of people out of work in the Island is at its lowest for more than three years.

The latest figures measuring people registered as unemployed show that at the end of the year there were 1,440 people out of work but the seasonally-adjusted figure that irons out ups and downs throughout the year shows the lowest total since September 2011.

The figures show:

• There were 1,440 people registered as out of work.

• Of those, 210 had been out of work for a year or more.

• The total also included 200 teenagers aged between 16 and 19 - that's 70 fewer than a year ago.

The figures for people registered with the Social Security department as being “actively seeking work” do not cover all unemployed people, just those who have taken the step of registering.

The last formal count according to international rules was made by the Jersey Annual Social Survey last June – it recorded that there were around 2,800 people who were out of work and looking for a job.

That figure, worked out in accordance with International Labour Organisation standards, gives an unemployment rate of 4.6% - significantly down on the 5.7% recorded the year before.

Jersey’s unemployment rate of 4.6% compares to 7.2% in the UK, 1.1% in Guernsey and a rate of 10.8% in France.