Above: PIOJ Director General Dr Gladstone Hutchinson

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Major crimes in Jamaica fell 9.56 percent between January and September 2012, compared to the same period in 2011, according to data from the Planning Institute of Jamaica.

There were approximately 276 major crimes committed per 100,000 of the population in the first nine months of the year, compared to 305 per 100,000 in 2011.

Murders saw a slight increase, however, with a 1.1 percent jump to 31 per 100,000 in the period.

Richard Lumsden, programme director for the PIOJ’s Plan Development Unit, said the figures “continue the overall downward trend in crime rates that began in June of 2010.”

Lumsden, who was speaking this week at a briefing in New Kingston, said that crime data was part of the indicators of Jamaica’s National Development Plan, Vision 2030 Jamaica, which seeks to position Jamaica as a developed country by 20130.

At the same briefing, PIOJ Director General Dr Gladstone Hutchinson reported that 18,000 new people had been employed as of July of this year, bringing the total number of employed people in Jamaica to 1.094 million, an increase of 11,100.