WILLEMSTAD - In the month of September 2018, the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) carried out the Labor Force Survey (AKO) in Curaçao. AKO is an annual survey among households held since 1987 in September / October to measure the recent trends on the local labor market, such as the unemployment rate, the participation rate, the number of employed people and those looking for work.

From 2017 Curaçao has a negative migration, with more people leaving the country compared to those that settle. This trend is also visible in the number of jobs recorded in 2018, as a decrease was observed for all the different statuses: for employed and unemployed people and for the economically inactive population.

The labor market consisting of employed and unemployed people has dropped from 73,147 to 70,153 people, which means a decrease of 2,994 people. In absolute numbers, the largest drop occurred among the working population, but the largest impact was measured by the unemployed population, which fell by 8.6 percentage points from 10,313 persons in 2017 to 9,424 in 2018.

The labor market shows a decline in the unemployment rate from 14.1 percent in 2017 to 13.4 percent in 2018.

The main reason for unemployment reported in the Labor Force Survey 2018 is still the deteriorated economic situation; the share of unemployed people who give this as a reason has increased from 34.6 percent to 52.2 percent. This percentage indicates a growing dissatisfaction with the economy and the labor market and is also an indicator for negative migration trends. Increasing emigration and declining immigration is often a result of dissatisfaction, causing people to leave the island to find a job elsewhere.

The unemployment rate among men fell most sharply from 12.9 to 11.3 per cent, while the unemployment rate among women showed only a slight decrease from 15.6% to 15.4%. This may be due to the size of the two groups. The male unemployment rate decreased by 14 percent, while the female unemployment rate decreased by 4.6 percent.

Youth unemployment continues to decline and has reached a low record in 2018 of 29.3 percent. This compared with the 32.8 percent of 2017.