“How economically active were we? – What makes up our supply?”
The preliminary findings on economic activity from the Anguilla Population and Housing Census (AP&HC) 2011 indicate that the enumerated population from the data collection stage, based on the analysis was 10,390. The labour force of the non-institutional population, of persons aged 15 years and over, is divided into two groups; those currently economically active (labour force) and those currently economically inactive (not in the labour force).
The internationally accepted working age population is usually defined to be persons aged 15 – 64 years, for Anguilla, this totaled 9,367 persons. In the Anguillian context, it is recognized that children usually do not start paid work until they are not required to attend school, which is usually around the age of 17, therefore reducing the working age population for Anguilla to 8,951.
The economically active population is defined as the number of individuals employed, available and willing to work; Anguilla’s supply numbered 7,662. Out of the 7,662, there are 6,682 employed individuals that make up the labour force at various occupations2 within Anguilla. Table 2 below shows the economically active employed individuals, by industry and sex.
The attached tables (2 and 3) illustrate separately, as there has been a change in the versions of the occupational classifications between ISCO-88 and ISCO 08 the employment by occupation. According to the International Labour Office (ILO), the conceptual model used to guide the development of ISCO-08 has not been fundamentally changed from that used in ISCO-88, however, there are significant differences in the treatment of some of the occupational groups. The difference reflects the need to address concerns about specific difficulties in the use of ISCO-88 and the occupational change in the 20-year, since its development.
The overall system of major groups, sub-major groups and unit groups used in ISCO-88 has been retained in the current ISCO-08. However, the name of some of the major groups have been slightly changed and some occupational groups have been moved from one major group to another and a number of new sub-major groups and units have been introduced, among other changes. Therefore, the conversion of the data directly from ISCO-88 to ISCO-08 is not possible, as a result these changes imply a break in the series between statistics in both versions.
Table 3 shows that for those individuals 6,357 (95.1%) enumerated during Census 2011, who provided a response to the question, “What was … (‘s) MAIN occupation” allowed the Anguilla Statistics Department to code for the industry.
Most of the employed individuals are employed in occupations under the category ‘Service and Sales workers’ 1,448 (21.7%) individuals, followed by ‘Elementary workers’ with 1,110 individuals (16.6%) and ‘Technicians and associate professionals’ with 915 individuals 13.7% of the employed labour force. Although the highest number of individuals held an occupation in the category ‘Services and sales workers’, majority of these individuals were females with a share of 64.8% and males with 35.2%.
The majority of the economically active men 20.4% were employed under the occupation category ‘Craft and related trades workers’ with 657 individuals, whereas, the least amount was employed under ‘Clerical support workers’. This may be part due to some of the construction related occupation being located within this category ‘Craft and related trades workers’ and the 2nd most popular industry for men was the ‘Construction’ industry3. Conversely, majority of the women 27.1% (939) work in the occupations under ‘Services and sales workers’ and the least amount, 0.1%, work as ‘Skilled agriculture, forestry and fishery workers’. This may be due to majority of the hospitality related jobs under the ‘Services and sales workers’ category, being linked to the ‘Hotels and Restaurants’ industry which recorded the highest number of female employee.
In regards to the previous censuses (1974 – 2001), which used occupation classification(s) prior to ISCO-08, most individuals were employed under the category of “Production, Construction and Transport”. In 1974 and 1984 censuses, the occupations under the category “Clerical and Sales” followed as the second highest for men and then was out ranked by the category “Services” for the years 1992 and 2001. The “Services” occupations recorded in 1992 (1,036) almost tripled that recorded in 1984, (385).
The AP&H Census 2001 showed that the most employed occupations for men was within the ‘Production, Construction & Transport’ category and the least recorded was under ‘Clerical and Sales’. Females mostly occupied the occupations under the ‘Services’ category and the least amount recorded in the ‘Agriculture’ category. These trends were also similar to that of the censuses prior to 2001, except in 1974 where the highest employed occupations were in the ‘Clerical and Sales’ category, up by one individual over the ‘Services’ category.