Job availability up by 5.2 percent

By Elorm Desewu

The current survey by the Central Bank on the labour market development shows that Job availability in country for the first half of the year has recorded a yearly growth of 5.2 percent. According to the figures, the number of advertised job vacancies in the dailies went up from 5,323 in June 2011 to 5,598 during the first half of 2012.

There was a significant increase in employers’ intentions to hire staff as revealed by job vacancies posted through the dailies.

It is however unclear which sector continues to dominate job vacancy announcements. Whether it is the service, industrial or the agricultural sector, as the Central Bank has kept tight lips on the details.

Other real sector indicators of economic activity depicted positive growth. By end June 2012, cumulative volume of cement production had gone up by 20.5 percent on a year-on-year basis to 266,930.70 tonnes compared to 221,592.40 tonnes produced in the corresponding period of 2011. The higher turnout was attributed to the resumption of production at WACEM after completion of plant repair works which temporarily lowered production levels.

Available data on Social Security contribution showed an increase in the number of firms on the SSNIT scheme from 19,797 in June 2011 to 21,053 in June 2012, representing an annual growth of 6.3 percent.

Total worker’s social security contributions (both Tier 1 and Tier 2) recorded an annual growth of 74.8 percent over the first half of 2012.

Cumulatively, the Driver Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) registered a total of 98,210 motor vehicles in the first half of 2012, signaling a yearly growth of 22.7 percent over the 80,068 vehicles registered in the same period of 2011.