Chapter 4 – Labor Force and Employment

Data on labor force participation and employment come from the U.S. Census and the CNMI Department of Labor and Immigration.

Of the 39,000 adults in the CNMI in 2010, about 28,000 (72 percent) were in the labor force, as the U.S. government defines it.  The United Nations agencies include subsistence activities as “in the labor force” and so come up with higher participation rates and lower unemployment rates.  The U.S. defined unem-ployment rate in 2010 was 11.2 percent.  The female participation rate was 67 percent (2 out of 3 of the male adults) compared to 78 percent for the males.  And, male unemployment in 2010 was 10 percent compared to 13 percent for the females.

Because censuses take snapshots of a population at different points in time, the participation and unem-ployment rates represent only those particular points.  Economic activities vary from season to season and from year to year.  Nonetheless, the male participation rate was highest in the 1995 census at 90 percent and the female rate was highest in that year and in 2000.  And the unemployment rates also varied con-siderably over time.

The participation rate for Saipan in 2010 was 72 percent as well, compared to 76 percent for Rota and 81 percent for Tinian.  The unemployment rate for Saipan at that time was 12 percent, compared to 8 percent for Rota and 7 percent for Tinian.  About 1,100 people were doing subsistence in addition to work for pay.  These adults were fishing or growing agriculture products for home use in addition to working at paid jobs. 

Males on Saipan participated at 77 percent compared to 81 percent on Rota and 86 percent on Tinian, while females participated at 66 percent on Saipan, 71 percent on Rota, and 75 percent on Tinian.  The la-bor force participation rate for the islands decreased between 2000 and 2010, partly because of the closing of the garment factories and the private sector jobs supporting them.  The rate for Saipan decreased from 84 percent to 72 percent, for Rota from 79 to 76 percent, and for Tinian from 83 to 81 percent.  Both males and females on each island showed similar decreases.

Unfortunately, the U.S. Census Bureau does not release Public Use Microdata Samples (PUMS) to CNMI and American Samoa as they do for Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and so some trends could not be maintained.  So, we can only show labor force participation rates for ethnic groups up to 2000.  For the his-torical record, the rate for Chamorros in 2000 was 59 percent compared to 54 percent for Carolinians, 92 percent for Filipinos, and 99 percent for Chinese.  

The Census collects information on occupation in 5 major categories: management, service, sales, re-sources, and production.  The largest category in 2010 was service jobs with 7,400 (or 30 percent), followed by management, business and science with 6,700 (or 27percent).  About 43,000 adults had specified occu-pations in 2000 compared to 25,000 in 2010.  All of the categories remained about the same except for production, transportation and material moving, which decreased from 18,000 in 2000 to 2,000 in 2010, almost totally because of the closing of the garment factories.  In fact, the number of machine operators increased from 118 in 1980 to 4,800 in 1990, and then 6,900 in 1995 before decreasing to 2,200 in 2000.  Almost all of the workers were female. 

The census data on industry show similar results.  The numbers in manufacturing (so including the garment factories) increased from 110 in 1980 to 5,700 in 1990, 7,800 in 1995, and then jumped to 17,000 in 2000 before decreasing to just 700 in 2010.  However, the tourism industry took off at about the same time as the garments were leaving.  Service jobs increased from 1,800 in 1980 to 6,800 in 1990, 11,200 in 1995 before decreasing to 2,400 in 2000 and then increase to 1,600 in 2010.  (It looks like 2000 industries may have been coded differently from the other years.)

The Census Bureau defines 3 main classes of workers: private sector, public sector, and self-employed (and family).  In 2010, about 19,000 adults were in the private sector (about 3 in every 4 workers) and about 5,300 (about 1 in 5) were government workers.  As expected, Saipan had the largest numbers of workers.  About 700 (50 percent) of Rota’s workers were in the private sector compared to about 1,200 (69 percent) of Tinian’s workers.  In 2000, 37,000 (87 percent of the workers in the private sector – 7 of 8 compared to 6 of 8 in 2010), and about 5,000 (about 1 in 8) were in the public sector.  The percentage in the private sector increased from about 56 percent in 1980 to 85 percent in 1990, 83 percent in 1995, 87 percent in 2000 and 77 percent in 2010.

CNMI basically has no public transportation.  In 2010, of the 24,500 workers, about 9,800 (40 percent – 2 in every 5) workers drove alone to work in a private vehicle.  Another 8,000 (about 1 in 3) drove to work in a private vehicle, but with others, that is, carpooling.  The next category of workers was those who walked to work.  About 3,800 (15 percent) were in this category.  And about 1,500 (about 6 percent) worked at home.  

The number who walked in the 2000 census was 16,895 (about 37 percent) occurred because of the con-tinuing presence of the garment factories.  The percentage of those who drove alone increased between 2000 and 2010, but only about half as many carpooled in 2010 as did in 2000.

About 36,000 (2 out of every 3) people had health insurance in 2010, so about 1/3rd did not have health insurance.  Of those under 18, though, only about 17 percent did not have health insurance coverage.

The Department of Labor and Immigration collects data on current labor force participation.  Unfortu-nately, the trends stopped in 2004.  When new data become available, they will be included in the year-book.