In the fi­nal quar­ter of 2014, T&T un­em­ploy­ment rate was 3.3 per cent–un­changed from the pre­vi­ous quar­ter.

How­ev­er, da­ta just re­leased by the Cen­tral Sta­tis­ti­cal Of­fice in its Labour Bul­letin shows that, bro­ken down by gen­der, the rate in­creased among males, from 2.6 per cent in the third quar­ter of 2014, to 2.9 per cent in the fourth quar­ter of the year. For fe­males, the un­em­ploy­ment rate de­creased from 4.4 per cent to 3.8 per cent.

Com­pared to the cor­re­spond­ing pe­ri­od a year ear­li­er the da­ta showed that the over­all un­em­ploy­ment rate de­creased from 3.8 per cent to 3.3 per cent with the male un­em­ploy­ment rate de­creas­ing from 3.4 per cent to 2.9 per cent and the fe­male un­em­ploy­ment rate de­creas­ing from 4.3 per cent to 3.8 per cent.

In terms of the un­em­ploy­ment sit­u­a­tion, the da­ta re­flect­ed a de­crease of 800 or 3.6 per cent in the num­ber of un­em­ployed per­sons in T&T be­tween the third and fourth quar­ters 2014.

Un­em­ployed males in­creased by 1,400 or 14.3 per cent while un­em­ployed fe­males de­creased by 2,200 or 17.9 per cent.

A com­par­i­son of the da­ta for the cor­re­spond­ing quar­ter in 2013 re­vealed a de­crease of 3,400 or 13.8 per cent in the to­tal num­ber of un­em­ployed per­sons.

The size of the labour force was 651,000 per­sons, This was a de­crease of 9,100 or 1.4 per cent com­pared to the third quar­ter 2014.

From a gen­der per­spec­tive, this de­crease was re­flect­ed among fe­males which fell by 12,100 or 4.3 per cent. Males in­creased by 3,000 or 0.8 per cent.

The over­all labour force par­tic­i­pa­tion rate fell from 62 per cent in the third quar­ter 2014 to 61.1 per cent in fouth quar­ter 2014 and com­pared with the cor­re­spond­ing quar­ter in 2013, de­creased from 61.6 per cent to 61.1 per cent.

In com­par­i­son to the pre­vi­ous quar­ter, an analy­sis of per­sons with jobs by in­dus­try re­vealed that in­creas­es were iden­ti­fied in fi­nanc­ing, in­sur­ance, re­al es­tate and busi­ness ser­vices 7,200 or 13.2 per cent, oth­er man­u­fac­tur­ing (ex­clud­ing sug­ar and oil) 4,600 or 9.6 per cent and oth­er agri­cul­ture, forestry, hunt­ing and fish­ing 3,600 or 17.2 per cent.

How­ev­er de­creas­es were seen in com­mu­ni­ty, so­cial and per­son­al ser­vices 18,000 or 8.4 per cent, trans­port, stor­age and com­mu­ni­ca­tion 2,800 or 5.9 per cent and whole­sale and re­tail trade, restau­rants and ho­tels 2,300 or 1.9 per cent.

In the pe­ri­od un­der re­view, the largest in­creas­es record­ed in per­sons with jobs by oc­cu­pa­tion­al group were ex­pe­ri­enced by ser­vice work­ers (in­clud­ing de­fence force) and shop sales work­ers 3,800 or 4 per cent and leg­is­la­tors, se­nior of­fi­cials and man­agers 800 or 1.3 per cent.

How­ev­er, the largest de­creas­es were record­ed in pro­fes­sion­als 4,600 or 12.2 per cent, craft and re­lat­ed work­ers 3,900 or 4 per cent and el­e­men­tary oc­cu­pa­tions 3,600 or 3.1 per cent.