More than 1,400 jobs were lost in Bermuda last year as companies trimmed their workforces in response to the continuing recession.According to Government data, this means that more than 2,000 jobs have been lost over the two years since the 2008 employment peak.The worst-hit sector last year was construction, which shed 443 jobs, or 12.6 percent of the industry’s workforce, while the hotel sector shed 287 jobs.Those two industries accounted for more than half of all jobs lost in 2010.Almost 40 percent of the jobs lost last year or 560 jobs were held by Bermudians, according to the National Economic Report 2010.The last official unemployment rate published was 4.5 percent, based on data from May 2009.Yesterday, Premier Paula Cox said in her Budget statement that the current jobless rate was about five percent. Last year’s overall 3.6 percent fall in jobs, quoted by the report, was based on preliminary data from the 2010 Employment Survey.The total number of jobs in Bermuda fell to 38,095 last year, a fall of 1,425 posts from the year before.The haemorrhaging of jobs, which has continued in 2011, may have been exacerbated by last year’s two percentage point increase in the rate of payroll tax, which increased employment costs for businesses and which was reversed yesterday.“Growth in the number of jobs began to slow in 2007 when the increase was 0.4 percent,” the report states.“The number of jobs peaked in 2008 at 40, 213, reflecting year-over-year growth of 0.9 percent. Since that time the number of jobs in Bermuda has declined.“In 2009, there was a year-over-year decline of 1.7 percent and 2010 witnessed a further decrease of 3.6 percent.”The construction industry underwent a rapid expansion in the run-up to the recession, fuelled by a series of major office building projects in Hamilton, as well as some major Government projects.Now it is going through an equally sharp contraction and last year’s 12.3 percent fall in the number of jobs left the sector employing 3,045 people, compared to 3,488 in the previous year. Jobs in the hotel sector fell by 10.6 percent to 2,432 from 2,719.International business shed 138 jobs last year, a 3.1 percent year-over-year decline, and the sector employed 4,293 people last year.This comes on top of the seven percent fall seen in international business in 2009. There was a significant fall in employment in the business services sector, which shrank by 3.6 percent to 4,038.The worst-hit workers by occupational group were professional trades and craft workers, and service, shop and market sales workers.These two groups combined accounted for 857, or about 60 percent, of the job losses.