Bermudians have been benefiting from a jobs boom, the latest employment survey has revealed.

It shows that 3,384 new jobs were created between the years 1996 and 2000, with nearly 2,000 going to locals, however the share of jobs Bermudians occupied fell by two percent to 76 percent.

The hotel sector fell by 19 percent - with the loss of 809 jobs being mostly blamed on the loss of resort hotels - while jobs in cottage colonies and apartment hotels remained relatively firm.

Employment in construction went up by 21 percent, international business went up by 27 percent and business grew by 22 percent.

Bermuda Industrial Union leader Derrick Burgess said he expected the construction boom to fizzle out at some stage.

However he said the growth of international business could put a strain on the Island. He said: "We have to be careful when bringing people in because we have a housing problem."

He said: "Bermuda's only so big, so how much more can you build?"

Mr. Burgess said he expected demand for hotel workers would increase as the Tucker's Point and Lantana properties came online.

Among the fastest growing occupations were actuaries, accountants and pre-school teachers, while the demand for waiters fell, with a loss of 721 over the five years.

There was a shift towards white-collar jobs at the expense of blue collar jobs.

Among the jobs which tended to be dominated by non-Bermudians were accountants, legal secretaries, chefs, landscape gardeners and butchers.

Employment reached a record high in 2000, with 38,017 jobs, although some of the increase is attributed to improved statistics gathering. There was an increase of 2000 jobs held by Bermudians over the five-year period.

The boom in the construction industry, which saw 721 new jobs created, helped spark a rise in production and related jobs.

Overall, employment grew at two percent per year, however there was no significant change in the racial distribution of job holders over the five years.

Blacks have 51 percent of the new positions, whites occupied 30 percent while people of mixed race got 19 percent of the new jobs.

The statistics are included in revised format of the Employment Survey.

Chief Statistician Janet Smith Bradshaw said the old version tended to gather dust because it was bulky; the revised statistics breakdown, available free from Government Information Services, should be more user friendly. The tabulated yearly surveys from 1999 onwards will still be available at a cost of $5.

She said the five-year comparison was also a new idea. She said: "We thought it would be good to do some sort of trend analysis."

Low staffing levels had led to the late production of the 2000 statistics but she said the 2001 figures would be out in June.