Those are just some of the findings of the Jersey Annual Social Survey, which has been released this morning. The survey of 1,600 Islanders is a snapshot of Island life and Island opinions carried out by the States Statistics Unit, covering a wide array of subjects.
The survey appears to suggest that although it’s still tough for most of us, things are starting to get better.
The unemployment rate recorded in the survey, which was carried out in June, was 4.6%, which means that around 2,800 people were out of work – that figure compares to 5.7% just 12 months ago, and to comparable rates of 6% in the UK and 10.1% in the EU.
And when asked how they were coping financially, the trend was the same: 26% said that they found things difficult or very difficult, a slight improvement on the 24% who said the same four years ago.
But it’s not going well for everyone – the stats show that 8% of us are behind on our rent, and 3% are behind on mortgage payments.
And there’s still no big change in the top priority for Islanders – they want the States to sort out immigration. Asked if they could change one thing about life in Jersey, sorting out population/immigration was the top answer, and it was described as a “very high” priority by 62% of respondents.
The number who described different policy areas as a high/very high priority over the next 20 years were: maintaining a healthy economy (90%); maintaining high levels of public services in health, social services and benefits (88%); protecting the environment (83%); controlling the population level (82%); maintaining Jersey’s low-tax system (81%); protecting green areas from new buildings (72%); and ensuring availability and quality of housing (69%).
The full survey can be downloaded here.