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Service overtakes garment in workforce
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Posted on Jun 01 2006
In the first quarter of the year, the Commonwealth’s service industry employed more nonresident workers than all other industries in the CNMI, including the garment sector.
The CNMI Quarterly Economic Indicators report for January to March 2006 showed that work permits issued to “services” totaled 2,373, the highest among industries.
The garment sector, which employs the biggest number of nonresident workers, only had 2,090 permits during the period.
The report did not specify what consists of “service” industry, but it certainly includes those companies involved in consumer services other than hotels, restaurants, tourism, and banking.
In the quarterly report, hotels ranked third with 618 work permits issued, followed by construction with 531, private household with 453, and restaurants with 349.
Farming, nightclub/bar, tourism had less than 200 work permits issued each.
Security services had 66, manpower had eight, banking had six, and fishing had three.
Overall, the report said that the Department of Labor issued 7,036 total work permits to nonresident workers in the CNMI during the first three months of the year.
In the past seven years, the government issued an average of 28,000 work permits to nonresident workers annually.
The peak was reported in 2005 with 36,405 work permits and in 2000 with 36,261 permits issued.
Overall, the garment industry remains the biggest employer of nonresident workers, with 14,512 permits last year.
Services came in next with 10,998 permits, followed by a wide margin by the hotel sector with 2,687 and private household with 2,012.
The garment sector, which is required to keep its employment quota within 15,527 a year, went through a massive downsizing as a result of the 2005 world trade liberalization.
In the seven-year period, the industry received the highest number of work permits in 2001 with 16,639, the Commerce report showed.
Meantime, the private households’ employment of housekeepers and maintenance staff has consistently ranked among the top five industries in the Commonwealth.
In the past seven years, private households were issued nearly 2,000 permits a year.
