Durrant Pate/Contributor

With the country’s unemployment at an all-time low of 3.3%, the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) is reporting that the country experienced a higher labour force participation in July 2025, reflecting an increase of 28,700 persons compared to July 2024. 

Jamaica’s Labour Force Survey for July 2025, which was released on Tuesday by STATIN, shows that an increase in the male labour force (19,100 or 2.5%) accounted for the majority (66.6%) of this increase. Of the total labour force, 794,400 (53.3%) were males and 695,900 were females. The overall labour force participation rate was 69.1 per cent. 

Males had a higher participation rate of 75.0 per cent, while females had a rate of 63.4 per cent. The Survey was conducted between July and September 2025 with a reference week of July 6 to 12, 2025. The largest increase in employment observed in the ‘Managers’ occupational group. By industry, the largest gains occurred in ‘Wholesale and Retail Trade; Repair of Motor Vehicles and Motorcycles’. 

Employment by groups

Employment growth was led by ‘Managers’ and ‘Services and Sales Worker’ Occupation Groups. There were 100,400 persons employed in the occupation group ‘Managers’ in July 2025, reflecting the largest increase in employment of 10,300 persons (11.4%) compared to July 2024. The occupation group ‘Services and Sales Workers’ with 345,500 employed persons, had the second-largest increase of 7,300 (2.2%). 

The group ‘Managers’ accounted for the largest growth in female employment (7,800 or 14.6%), while the group ‘Services and Sales Worker’ had the largest growth in male employment (12,700 or 11.2%). Largest Increase by Industry was in ‘Wholesale and Retail Trade; Repair of Motor Vehicles and Motorcycles.’ In July 2025, the ‘Wholesale and Retail Trade; Repair of Motor Vehicles and Motorcycles’ industry employed 274,000 individuals, reflecting an increase of 8,800 persons (3.3%); all of whom were males. 

The second-largest increase (7,600 individuals) occurred in the industry group ‘Manufacturing’, bringing total employment in the group to 90,900 persons. The largest increase in female employment (5,700) was in the industry group ‘Arts, Entertainment, Recreation and Other Services’, which grew from 82,700 in July 2024 to 88,400 in July 2025.

Employment by industry

In July 2025, the ‘Wholesale and Retail Trade; Repair of Motor Vehicles and Motorcycles’ industry employed 274,000 individuals, reflecting an increase of 8,800 persons (3.3%); all of whom were males. The second-largest increase (7,600 individuals) occurred in the industry group ‘Manufacturing’, bringing total employment in the group to 90,900 persons. The largest increase in female employment (5,700) was in the industry group ‘Arts, Entertainment, Recreation and Other Services’, which grew from 82,700 in July 2024 to 88,400 in July 2025. 

Total number of unemployed

The total number of unemployed individuals was 49,200, down 3,400 (6.5%) compared to July 2024. This decline was largely attributed to the prime working age group, where unemployment fell by 3,400 persons (11.4%) to 26,400. The number of unemployed males stood at 18,900, down by 6,100 (24.4%) relative to the similar quarter of 2024. However, an increase of 2,800 unemployed females tempered the decline in overall unemployment in July 2024. The unemployment rate (LU1) for July 2025 was 3.3 per cent compared with 3.6 per cent in July 2024. The unemployment rate for males was 2.4 per cent, down from 3.2 per cent, while the rate for females was 4.4 per cent, relative to 4.0 per cent in July 2024