The economic news on Bermuda has been unrelentingly gloomy in recent months – virtually all economic indicators are pointing in the wrong direction, from retail sales to construction starts to imports.

But there was a glimmer of hope in the recently released Quarterly Bulletin of Statistics, which is reported on in today's Business section.

Employment income rose by 1.1 percent year over year in the second quarter of 2010 and this was driven almost entirely by international business, which rose by 6.6 percent, offsetting declines in most other sectors.

These figures need to be treated cautiously. Although these are salaries paid in Bermuda, it does not mean all that money stays in Bermuda.

But it does suggest that international business is likely to lead Bermuda out of recession (despite a marginal increase in air arrivals in the second quarter, hotel and restaurant pay dropped by 27 percent).

That means that Bermuda must do everything it can to make international business feel welcome. The decision of Allied World Assurance last week to move its parent company to Switzerland shows, at the very least, that Bermuda's competition is doing just that.