Review and Outlook for the U
1 U.S. Virgin Islands Economic Review and Industry Outlook Bureau of Economic Research (BER) March 2006 Prepared by Lauritz Mills, Director, Bureau of Economic Research (BER) Introduction The Virgin Islands economy had a break- out year in 2005 after struggling for sev- eral years from weak demand, and low levels of output and employment. The economy grew by an estimated 3.2 percent on account of a vibrant tourism sector, strong business investment and financial services activity. Nearly all of the major sector showed marginal to modest growth. Jobs increased by 2,857 or 7.0 per- cent over 2004. As a result, the Territory unemployment rate fell to 7.1 percent from 7.9 percent in 2004. Both island dis- tricts experienced a drop in the unem- ployment rate. The rate for the St. Croix district fell to 8.6 percent from 9.6 percent, while the rate for the St. Thomas and St. John district fell to 6.0 percent from 6.8 percent the year before. Tourism Looking at the performance of individual sectors, the tourism industry was one of the strongest performer in fiscal year 2005. …
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