The unemployment figure for April 2018 were released today - and they show that unemployment is up slightly when compared to April of 2017. It has increased from 9% to 9.4. That means over 16 thousand Belizeans are unemployed - 1,300 more than a year ago.
As Wendy Benavides from the SIB explained, this is due to the fact that there are more jobs available and more people seeking those jobs:
Wendy Benavides - Statistician II
"The rise in this area was as a result of more persons joining the labor force and jobs being created. Over 5,800 more jobs this year, this was especially seen in the Cayo and Toledo Districts The district with the lowest level of unemployment was Corozal at 5.6% experiencing increases in the employment in the service sector."
As you heard, Corozal had the lowest unemployment rate, while Cayo had the highest at 13.6%. Labour Force surveys are conducted in April and September - typically, unemployment is higher in September because there's less seasons employment from tourism.
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