Officials at the Bahamas National Statistical Institute (BNSI) revealed the latest unemployment numbers at a press event on Monday.

BNSI Assistant Director, Cyprianna Winters said, “the number of persons in the labour force during the second quarter of 2024 was 233,575.  The participation rate was 73.4% , a decline of 0.4 percentage points. The participation rate for males 77.4%, a decline of 0.8 percentage points while the rate for females 69.8% remained unchanged.”

It was also revealed that the occupational group of professional science and engineering professionals had the highest number of persons working in the area for which they were trained.

When asked why more men than women were employed, officials said, “it could be a number of things.”

The Ministry of Labour and the Public Service released a statement on the latest labour numbers.  It said, “Unemployment in The Bahamas has now fallen to its lowest recorded level since 2008 according to the latest numbers released by the National Statistical Institute (NSI). In the first half of 2024, the unemployment rate stood at 8.7%, which is a 1.2% decrease compared to the end of 2023. This is lower than the 8.8% recorded in May 2023, making it the lowest recorded unemployment rate in 16 years.”

The statement also said that Minister of Labour and the Public Service, the Hon. Pia Glover-Rolle ” views these positive gains as a sign of The Bahamas’ promising economic prospects and potential for labour market growth under the Davis administration.”

The Minister also said that moving forward “the Ministry of Labour will continue to support the Davis administration’s agenda by not only targeting job market growth, but also by spurring economic expansion through enhanced labour market productivity brought on by a slate of ongoing reforms to modernise and strengthen the local labour market.”