Unemployment drops slightly to 274

Monday 29 October 2018

274 people were unemployed at the end of September 2018, which is down just one on a year ago, but down from 300 three months ago.

Quarterly figures released by the Committee for Employment & Social Security show that the number of jobseekers has decreased during the first nine months of 2018 – from 305 at the end of December to 274 at the end of September.

A further 392 people were registered as unemployed but had some work, which could have been part time or casual, during the last few weeks.

Deputy Michelle Le Clerc, President of the Committee for Employment & Social Security, said:

"Guernsey continues to have low unemployment, and the employment market remains buoyant with a large number of vacancies advertised with the Job Centre. 

"It is pleasing to note that there were fewer new jobseeker claims in this quarter compared to the number of claims that ended. (300 new/307 ended.)"

The quarterly unemployment report also highlighted statistics for the average number of people unemployed throughout the third quarter. This is calculated by averaging out snapshots taken on the last Saturday of each month.

ESS said the average number of jobseekers during the third quarter of 2018 stood at 274. This represents a decrease of 29 when compared to the average number between April and June. 

Other stats highlighted include 43 people on training schemes as at the end of September; with 23 people having attended short courses run through the Job Centre during the third quarter (140 people have attended short courses so far this year).

The Job Centre continues to promote vacant job roles via its website, with 1,033 adverts promoted between July and September, up from 481 during the same period last year.