Guernsey First Quarter 2012 Labour Market Bulletin

Posted: 20/06/2012

States of Guernsey policy council
The States of Guernsey has today published the First Quarter 2012 Labour Market Bulletin.

States of Guernsey Economist, Dr Andy Sloan, said:

"This is the first quarter labour market bulletin, this is our first sight of the employment numbers which together with the unemployment numbers (that are published monthly) gives us a both sides of the coin view of the labour market. There are no great surprises in the bulletin, these numbers support the unemployment data that there was a weakening of the labour market in the last quarter of 2011 and the first quarter of this year. However, the impact of this weakening on unemployment seems to have been relatively greater than the impact on employment albeit not massively. Year on year the decline in total employment was less than 80 against a rise in unemployed year on year of more than 100.

Finance sector employment fell slightly over the course of the year but not at rates that would give undue cause for alarm given the revaluing global economic circumstance. Confidence is continuing to be impacted by the never ending Eurozone crisis. It is somewhat ironic that these numbers are now nearly a quarter out of date. The most recent evidence from the unemployment data was that the labour market had not weakened much further in recent months which if also borne out by employment data would be a cause for contentment".