MARTINIQUE - Employment
Following the Pons Act on tax exemption and the Perben Act on occupational integration and employment, the public administrations continue to deploy strong measures to encourage economic activity in the overseas départements, notably through the Act for overseas orientation.
As from 1998, employment growth, which had been for a long time insufficient in the face of an increasing working population became stronger. But from 1996 to 2001 employment decreased on average by 0.7% per year. At the beginning of 2001 there were 115 000 jobs in Martinique compared to 120 000 at the start of 1996. This fall was due to a sharp decrease the number of self-employed (-7.8% on average per year), which could not be fully compensated by the slight increase in the annual average growth rate of employees (+0.6% on average per year). The share of self-employed over this period fell from 16.2% in 1996 to 10.2% in 2001.
83% of employees work in the services sector
At the beginning of 2001 82.7% of all employees in Martinique worked in the services sector. The island's biggest employers are to be found in non-market services, such as public administration, education, health, and social services. Nearly a quarter of employees in the services sector worked for public administration.
In the market services sector, the majority of employees work in distributive trades (15.3%), services to households (12.7%) and services to businesses sector (11.4%) in 2001.
7.5% of all employees in Martinique work in industry. Over the period 1996 to 2001, the number of employees in industry increased on average by 0.7% per year. At the beginning of 2001, nearly half of all employees of the industrial sector (excluding the agri-food industry and energy) worked in the production of intermediate goods (49.1%), 33.2% for the production of consumer goods and 17.4% worked in the production of capital goods.
At the beginning of 2001 4.2% of employees worked in construction and 5.6% in agriculture.
The importance of the services sector is reflected in the high level of office workers (44.5%) in the total of the workforce in the private and semi private sector. And the minor role of industry is reflected in the low proportion of skilled manual workers compared to the metropolitan. In 1999 skilled manual workers in Martinique accounted for 16.2% of the work force compared to 22.4% for metropolitan France. On the other hand, with 203 craftsmen per 10 000 inhabitants Martinique has one of the highest number of craftsmen in France. 40% of the island?s craftsmen work in construction.
One in four is unemployed
In 2000 the unemployment rate was 26.3%, even it had fallen by 4 points over two years. 50% of the working population aged less than 25 is unemployed.
The composition of the unemployed population has fewer young people and a high level of long-term unemployed. At the end of 2001 there were 43 400 job seekers. Those aged between 15 and 24 years accounted for 12.2% of all job seekers in Martinique, whereas the metropolitan average was 20%. This is because many young people leave Martinique to continue their education or to find a job, since they find it difficult to enter the local job market. Women in Martinique are more affected by unemployment than in any other region of France. At the end of 2001 they represented nearly 60% of all job seekers, whereas at the national scale the number of job seekers are equally divided between the sexes. The proportion of job seekers registered since more than one year is the highest in France: 49% compared to 31% for metropolitan France, and a quarter of job seekers aged between 15 and 24 year olds have been seeking work for more than a year.
High wages and salaries
Martinique stands out among the French regions for its high average wage level. This situation can be explained by the economic structure of the island, in particular its isolation from metropolitan France (8 hours from Paris by aeroplane) and lack of natural resources means that all raw materials other than those produced by local agriculture have to be imported. Martinique?s heavy dependency on imports thus generates a high cost of living.
The average net wage paid in 1999 by private and semi-public sector employers in Martinique was 17 225 Euro per year. This puts Martinique sixth on the national scale. But one of the peculiarities of Martinique - and other overseas departments - is the unequal distribution of salaries and incomes. With civil servants and their equivalent (in banks, hospitals, etc.) receiving allowances to compensate for the high cost of living their wages and salaries are higher than the national averages. Manual workers on the other hand are paid less than the national average.
Low gross disposable income
The high wages practised in Martinique are not reflected in the gross disposable income per capita. The average household in Martinique had a gross disposable income per capita 32% lower than the national average in 1997. But of the four French overseas départements the inhabitants of Martinique have the highest income with 9 250 Euro per capita.
Because of unemployment social inequalities are still pronounced. Indeed, one out of fourteen inhabitants receives the minimum social revenue from the state, and only a quarter of taxable households are taxed on their income.
The general increase in resources has made it possible to fairly quickly reduce cohabitation among families. The average number of persons per household has fallen from 3.34 to 2.88 between 1990 and 1999. With it single parenthood has increased: nearly four families out of 10 are single parents. In 1999 68% of babies were born out of wedlock.
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