One year ago, I reported that the unemployment rate for youth (aged 14-24) in Jamaica was close to 40 per cent.

According to the latest statistics from STATIN, the unemployment rate for this age group has decreased to 33.3 per cent. (This figure was from January 2014). Good news, of course, however that number is still way too high. Broken down further, the unemployment rate for males aged 14-24 was 26.1 per cent and 41.1 per cent for females in the same age group.

Overall, the unemployment rate for January 2014 was 13.4 per cent compared to 14.5 per cent for the same period a year ago. The same gap between male and female unemployment rates exists here, as well, with 10.1 per cent of males unemployed and 17.4 per cent of females unemployed.

In total, 1,305,500 people were employed in January, 2014, compared to 1,297,600 for January 2013. That is an increase of 0.6 per cent, or 7,900 people in total. Broken down by gender, again, the situation is interesting: 716,700 males were working as of January 2014 compared to 588,800 females. I don’t know why this gap exists, and STATIN offers no explanation.

The increase in the overall employment rate appears to come from a jump in hiring among the following professions: “Clerks”, and “Skilled Agriculture and Fishery Workers”, “Real Estate, Renting & Business Activities” and “Wholesale & Retail, Repair of Motor Vehicle & Equipment”. The biggest decline was among “Service Workers and Shop and Market Sales Workers”.

These are just the numbers. STATIN does not provide much analysis and I have not seen any articles on the latest stats. It seems things are improving, even if marginally. But the area that requires the most attention remains Jamaicans aged 14-24.