Bermuda's transition from a "twin pillar" economy based on tourism and international business to an offshore financial centre with a supporting tourism industry is confirmed by the labour statistics in the 2000 Census.

And the Island's dependence on foreign labour, particularly in the professional classes, is also underlined in the report.

Overall:

More Bermuda residents were working as unemployment was halved between 1991 and 2000;

Women continued to take up more positions in the labour force;

People were more likely to be in professional or white collar positions:

Most workers worked longer hours but started work later;

Two out of five workers are employed in Hamilton; and

Fewer than one in ten people work more than one job.

"Bermuda's level of labour force participation is among the highest in the world," the report said.

"In 2000, 85 percent of Bermuda's working age population were gainfully employed or self-employed. This was up three percentage points from 1991."

The labour force grew 11 percent between 1991 and 2000. While the gain maybe somewhat exaggerated because Bermuda was in recession in 1991, the nature of the labour force changed dramatically as jobs in tourism-related sectors and jumped in international business fields.

The largest percentage decline occurred in hotels, where employment fell 22 percent from 3,496 to 2,738 and hotels fell from the second largest employer to the ninth.

However employment in restaurants rose from 1,206 to 2,510, a rise of five percent suggesting that local residents' appetite for eating out offset the tourism decline.

Direct employment by international companies soared 65 percent from 1,914 to 3,167, the second largest single gain between 1991 and 2000.

The only sector that benefited more was business services, which includes the accounting and legal sectors, which leapt 89 percent from 1,692 to 3,198. The two sectors combined accounted for 6,365 jobs or 18 percent of the workforce compared to 11 percent in 1991.

The other sector that experienced explosive growth in the period was education, health and social work, which rose 32 percent from 3,055 to 4,026.

The largest single employer remained wholesale and retail trade and repair services which accounted for 13 percent of the workforce, down from 15 percent in 1991.

The shift to international business was also reflected in the Island's increasing employment of professional and technical workers, who are now the single largest block of workers.

"The international sector provided jobs for 759 additional professional and technical workers, while the business service sector employed 680 more persons in that occupational category - a 158 percent increase.

Due to a recategorisation of self-employed persons without employees from managers to the holder of the occupation in which they were engaged, the number of managers fell nine percent from 1991.

The number of women in professional/technical jobs outnumbered men, but more men held administrative and managerial positions. Women continued to make up the lion's share of clerical positions, while men did the same in production, transport and related services.

Broken down by race, whites were more likely than blacks to hold professional jobs, although if mixed and other races were added to blacks, the numbers were about even.

But whites were more likely by blacks to be managers or administrators. Clerical , service and production/transport workers were far more likely to be black than white.

The proportion of jobs held by Bermudians and spouses of Bermudians in the professions and administrative positions declined slightly from 1991, and rose slightly in all other sectors, suggesting that the demand for highly qualified staff outran the supply of qualified Bermudians.

Women continued to enter the workforce in increasing numbers, with the number of working age women holding jobs rising from 76 percent to 80 percent. As a proportion of the working population, women made up 48.4 percent of in 2000 compared to 47.6 percent in 1991.