Bermuda may be battling through a recession, but workers in the international business sector have been feeling the pain less than most.Compensation paid to Bermuda’s international business workers shot up by a staggering 40 percent in the first quarter of this year, helped by a hefty increase in bonuses and stock options.According to data compiled by the Department of Statistics, total employment income in the international business sector for the January through March period was $352.57 million, an increase of more than $100 million from the 2010 total for the same period of $251.86 million.Bonuses increased by approximately $40 million, year over year, while stock options were up by $24 million, according to a spokesman for the Department of Statistics. Salaries, leave pay and accommodation allowances were also up.First-quarter employment income for the sector, which employs more than 4,000 people, many of them in insurance and the funds industry, ranged between $244.8 million and $251.9 million between 2008 and 2010. So the rise to $352.57 million was a noteworthy jump, particularly when the number of workers in the sector is on a downward trend.According to numbers from Government employment surveys, international business employed around 10 percent fewer workers in 2010 than it did in 2008.However, it should be pointed out that increases in the multi-million-dollar compensation packages of some Bermuda-based executives could have a significant impact on the numbers.According to a survey on 2010 compensation by online newsletter OffshoreAlert, using information from regulatory filings, PartnerRe’s Patrick Thiele, who retired at the end of the year, was the best-paid CEO of a Bermuda reinsurer last year with a total package worth more than $17 million, followed by RenaissanceRe’s Neill Currie, whose compensation topped $14 million.OffshoreAlert’s calculations included salary, bonuses, stock awards, stock options and other compensation including housing allowance and use of corporate jets.The quarterly figures emphasised the importance of the international business sector to the Bermuda economy and drove a 12.5 percent increase in overall employment income in the first three months of the year to $886.51 million.Another sector to generate greater employee compensation was banking, local insurance and real estate, whose total of $97.87 million was up 11.6 percent on last year. The business services sector also recorded a two percent rise to $76.66 million, while public administration increased 0.9 percent to $106.92 million.However, employment income fell in sectors that have been particularly hard hit by the recession. Construction compensation plunged by almost a quarter, year on year, to $30.99 million from $41.13 million in 2010. It was the fifth successive quarter that construction employment income experienced a double-digit percentage fall. The drastic slowdown in the industry was also borne out by the figure for value of construction work put in place, which was $28.1 million, down 58.6 percent from the first quarter of 2010.This year’s number marks an 80.6 percent decline in the space of two years, when it’s compared to the industry’s peak in the first quarter of 2009, when work put in place was valued at $145.1 million.Hotels and restaurants’ compensation fell 3.9 percent to $14.1 million, while the wholesale and retail sector fell 6.1 percent to $50.47 million.The higher employment income overall helped Government achieve its highest ever quarterly payroll tax revenue of $101.2 million. This was the final quarter before the rate of payroll tax was rolled back two percentage points to 14 percent from 16 percent.Other sources of revenue were also higher for government, including international company fees, which were two percent higher at $50.3 million and land tax, up 18.6 percent to $19.8 million. Increases in vehicle licence fees helped revenue from this source rise 15.4 percent to $9 million, while telecommunications tax surged 106.9 percent to $6 million.However, customs duty revenue plummeted 13.7 percent to $40.8 million, as the value of imported goods hit its lowest level in eight years.Overall, government’s current revenues were up 11.4 percent compared to the first quarter of last year.However, current spending climbed by an even greater 13.2 percent to $267.4 million, as wages and salary expenses climbed 1.9 percent to $105 million, interest on public debt was $14 million and expenditure on goods and other services rocketed by nearly one fifth to $107.1 million.