construction sites.

But there has been a jobs boom in business services and real estate, new figures show.

Government's new quarterly bulletin of statistics shows where Bermuda residents were working between 1988 and 1992.

In that time the Island lost more than 1,000 jobs in construction, the bulletin says.

Almost 1,000 jobs disappeared in wholesale and retail, and more than 700 went in restaurants and hotels.

Looking at hotels in more detail, the bulletin records 4,253 workers in the hotel industry at the end of July this year, a decline of nearly four percent from the year before.

About 400 fewer people were working in hotels in July, 1993, than there were in July, 1991.

The Island's workforce has shrunk from 36,420 in 1988 to 33,650 in 1992, the bulletin says.

The bulletin also reveals an increase in the amount spent by residents on overseas trips.

Overseas spending in the third quarter of 1993 was about $6.5 million, almost seven percent up on the same period in 1992. Spending on computers and related products more than doubled, and spending on watches and jewellery went up more than 28 percent.

Purchases of tools, machinery and parts were up more than 15 percent.

Major construction projects put in place during the third quarter of 1993 totalled about $15.5 million, more than 11 percent down on the same period in 1992.