Employment income fell to its lowest level in almost two years during the third quarter of 2009, according to the latest figures released by Government.

The Department of Statistics' Quarterly Bulletin of Statistics report revealed that total income dropped 2.1 percent to $746.9 million for the quarter - the lowest point since the fourth quarter of 2007 when $733.9 million was recorded.

The biggest decliners were hotels and restaurants (60.4 percent), construction (7.9 percent), wholesale and retail (7.1 percent) and international business (4.9 percent).

But international business still led the way in terms of value at $196.1 million, despite a slight decline from the fourth quarter of 2008, while public administration,which was also saw the biggest growth of 12 percent during Q3 2009, accounted for $115.5 million of the total.

Central Government expenditure, however, was down 4.2 percent for last year's third quarter, with capital expenditure falling 33.4 percent, however, wages, salaries and employee overheads rose 9.9 percent during that time.

Coming in, Government's revenue sources were boosted by 2.5 percent overall, driven by passenger tax (+32.6 percent) and all other (+39.1 percent). On the other hand, hotel occupancy tax was down 48.1 percent, stamp duty 32.3 percent and telecommunications tax 31.7 percent. International company tax also dropped 27.3 percent.

The total number of new businesses registrations in Bermuda, meanwhile, declined 52.7 percent for the third quarter, with exempted and exempted partnerships down the most by 58.4 percent and 58.1 percent respectively. Local registrations were down 11.6 percent.

In terms of the total number on the register as a whole, the figure was down 2.6 percent, mainly due to exempted companies (-3.8 percent), despite exempted partnerships increasing by 8.6 percent.