Caymanian unemployment is creeping from short-term to long-term or structural unemployment

The population grew by 47.6% (4.8% per annum) between 2016 and 2025, propelled by strong economic growth of 55.8%, averaging 5.6% annually. Since 2016, work permits have grown by 71.4%, reaching 37,173 by 2025. Post-pandemic factors, including construction, the Economic Substance Law, and increased demand for auxiliary services—wholesale, retail, security, janitorial, government, and infrastructure—drove this rise. Industries with the fastest growth in permits were labour-intensive industries (up 46.5%), financial services (up 40%), and government services (up 33.7%).

Overall, unemployment averaged 3.7% between 2016 and 2025. Caymanian unemployment averaged 1,277, at a rate of 5.9%. In 2025, 1,645 Caymanians were not working but were interested in employment. This includes unemployed (1,045), potential labour force workers (425), and discouraged job seekers (175). Underemployment makes up about 8.9% of employment in 2025.

Students in training, persons with home duties, retired persons, the elderly, and those not working due to medical reasons accounted for 93.1% (11,329) of those not in the labour force in Fall 2025 and not seeking work. Among Caymanians, similar reasons accounted for 94.8% (8,992), consistently over 90% from 2016 to 2025.

Between 2016 and 2025, labour market educational attainment expanded in tandem with the economy's demand for skilled and semi-skilled labour. Compared with 2016, 23.2% more employed workers had a college degree or higher, and 5.9% more had post-secondary (technical/vocational) education. In 2025, 19.6% had a high school diploma or less. The share of workers with at least a college degree increased from 26.3% in 2016 to 36.4%. Among employed Caymanians, the share with at least a college degree rose to 38.1% in 2025, up from 2016. The share with post-secondary qualifications increased to 4.9%, while those with high school or lower qualifications decreased by 22.6%.

Nominal wages per hour by education level generally increased by 32.3% to 35.6% in 2025 compared to 2016. However, real wages (adjusted for inflation—price changes) decreased between 1.1% and 3.6% as price inflation outpaced wage growth.

In Fall 2025, high school employees earn CI$18.56 per hour, post-secondary or technical-vocational employees earn CI$23.50 per hour, and college graduates earn CI$41.37 per hour. There’s a clear earnings gap: a university grad earns over 2.2 times as much as a high school grad and 1.8 times as much as a post-secondary or vocational grad. Caymanian wages were 28.5% higher for university grads and 52.3% higher for technical-vocational grads, showing Caymanians generally earn more than non-Caymanians over ten years, with a smaller gap among university grads.

Of the 63,289 employed persons, 22.8% (14,456) have been promoted at their current job. Caymanian promotion was 33.5%, followed by permanent residents and non-Caymanians at 30.8% and 13.8%. Over two years, Caymanian promotion rates slightly declined from 34.6% to 33.5%. Overall promotions slowed from 23.2% in 2024 to 22.8% in 2025. Among promoted Caymanians, 40.8% were promoted less than a year ago, and 83.6% within the last year. About 14,456 (22.8%) of the Fall 2025 workforce were promoted within five years, of whom 72.5% were Caymanians.

The majority of unemployed persons were among high school graduates, and in recent years, there has been an uptick in university graduates. In 2024 and 2025, the educational attainment of unemployed persons was high school graduates with 63.1% and 64.5%, respectively. This was followed by 1 in 5 unemployed persons graduating from university and 1 in 10 persons with a post-secondary/technical-vocational qualification.

Some jobless individuals haven't actively looked for work recently. Between 2023 and 2025, over half of the unemployed were out of work for 12 months or more (long-term). The number of Caymanians unemployed for less than 12 months (short-term) decreased, while those unemployed longer increased. Specifically, among those who previously worked, short-term unemployment declined from 895 (67.2%) in 2017 to 302 (38.4%) in 2025. Conversely, long-term unemployment rose from 367 (27.6%) in 2017 to 486 (61.6%) in 2025. This indicates that short-term unemployment often leads to long-term unemployment.

For more information on The Cayman Islands’ Labour Market Review 2016-2025, please visit www.eso.ky.