Construction workers in Westmoreland fix the roof of an establishment that was destroyed during the passage of Hurricane Melissa. Photo: Jamaica Observer

This means that the employed labour force declined by 1.8 per cent in April 2026 relative to April 2025 as the fallout from Hurricane Melissa continues.

For the April 2026 survey, STATIN said it continued to deploy an abridged version of the standard LFS questionnaire in selected enumeration districts across the western parishes of St Elizabeth, Westmoreland, St James, Hanover, and Trelawny. These parishes continued to experience disruptions following the passage of Hurricane Melissa which made landfall on October 28 last year.

STATIN explained that the use of the shortened questionnaire enabled the ongoing estimation of core labour market indicators; however, some of the usual indicators could not be produced for the quarter.

The highlights of the survey are as follows:

-A total of 1,418,800 persons were employed, a decline of 25,700 individuals.

– The number of unemployed persons was estimated at 55,000, up from 50,000.

– The total number of persons outside the labour force was estimated at 681,900, an increase of 20,500.

STATIN outlined that in April 2026, the labour force totalled 1,473,900 individuals. The male labour force fell by 7,300 to 781,900, while the female labour force declined by 13,200 to 692,000. The overall labour force participation rate was 68.4 per cent relative to 69.3 per cent in April 2025.

Significantly, employment among males declined by 1.1 per cent to 761,000, while the number of employed females fell by 2.5 per cent to 657,900. There were 158,700 employed youth, a decline of 9.1 per cent compared to April 2025.

The male unemployment rate was 2.7 per cent and the female unemployment rate was 4.9 per cent, both reflecting an increase. The number of youth who were unemployed increased to 21,000 from 19,600, resulting in a youth unemployment rate of 11.7 per cent.