Vanuatu - Economic sectors

In 1999, agriculture contributed 25.7 percent of Vanuatu's gross domestic product (GDP), while industry made up 14.0 percent and services contributed 60.4 percent of GDP. Some value is attributed to subsistence agriculture in the statistics for agriculture, and other significant contributors are copra production and beef production. Industry is mostly made up of small-scale manufacturing and construction. The large proportion of GDP that derives from services can be attributed to government employment, especially in education, as well as the tourism industry and offshore banking facilities. The only data available about the labor force in Vanuatu are from the 1989 census, and these are quite different from the GDP data (and 10 years older). Since the subsistence sector is such an important element in the economy, it was decided by Vanuatu's statistics department that "labor force" should include all workers, whether they were working for cash or not. Thus, the statistics show that about 75 percent of the labor force in 1989 was in agriculture, and this percentage

includes all of those growing their own food for consumption as well as those selling crops and those working for wages on a plantation. Industry accounted for only 1.3 percent of the labor force, and services 23.9 percent; however, nearly all of those in industry and services were in the formal sector. Also, it is likely that these proportions will have increased during the 1990s, even when the subsistence component is included.