The easing of restrictions by the Bermuda government as the island began to return to normalcy after the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic had a profound effect on job statistics in 2022, the latest annual figures show.

The number of occupied jobs increased by 598, or 2 per cent, year-over-year to 31,914 at the end of 2022, according to the Bermuda Digest of Statistics 2023 released last week by the Ministry of Economy and Labour.

That number was still some way off the 2019 pre-pandemic total of 34,378 jobs.

Going further back, there were 34,277 occupied jobs in 2013, but that number had dropped to 33,319 by 2015 – but then trended upward for four years, including a jump of 523 from 2018 to 2019.

The number had dropped to 32,427 by the end of 2020, and was at 31,316 at year-end 2021.

But during 2022, there were increases in seven of the ten occupational groups.

Service workers, shop and market sales workers held 19 per cent of all occupied jobs after their number jumped by 308 year-over-year to 6,159.

In 2019, the year before Covid began to impact the island, service workers, shop and market sales workers held 7,427 jobs. That number had dropped to 6,244 at the end of 2020.

The number of senior officials and managers’ jobs rose to 6,400 by the end of 2022, an increase of 250 year-over-year.

Senior officials and managers held 20 per cent of all occupied jobs.

The number of workers in the professional category jumped from 6,496 to 6,593 at year-end 2022, an increase of 97.

Professionals held 21 per cent of all occupied jobs. There were decreases in jobs in three occupational groups.

The number of clerks fell by 78 to 4,524, while the number of elementary occupations jobs dropped by 24 to 932 and the number of craft and related trades workers fell by seven to 2,537.

Overall, the number of occupied jobs increased in all age groups in 2022, except 20-24 years and 50-54 years.

The estimated number of work permits issued to non-Bermudians not married to Bermudians increased by 22 per cent year-over-year from 6,813 to 8,287 at year-end 2022.

An estimated 12,096 work permits were issued in Bermuda in 2013.

That number had dropped to 9,728 by year-end 2019, and had plummeted to 6,639 at the end of 2020.

In 2022, the vast majority of work permits issued were held in the private sector at 7,858 or 95 per cent of the total.

The number of public-sector work permits issued was 429.

The duration of “two to five years” permits made up just over half of all work permits issued for the private sector.

For the public-sector employees, work permits with a length of “two to five years” also were the most common and comprised 69 per cent of the total

The Bermuda Digest of Statistics was first produced in 1973. The publication provides an annual summary of various socioeconomic statistics.

In the preface to the latest document, by Melinda Williams, Director of Statistics, she wrote: “The coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic led to restrictions being imposed by Government (eg curfews, limited group sizes, reduced business hours and temporary business closures), cancellations (eg cruises and flights) and changes in behaviour (eg less desire to travel and dine out) as mitigation efforts to reduce the spread of Covid-19 commencing in 2020.

“Government’s pandemic-related restrictions eased over the course of 2022 and ceased on November 30 that year. Therefore, readers should take the pandemic into account when interpreting the 2020 to 2022 data.”