The jobs, it noted, were created in various sectors of the economy.

It said the jobs created in the first three months were 99,485 jobs or 26.95 per cent higher than the 369,485 created in the last three months of 2014.

The NBS, in the job creation report for the first quarter, said the informal sector created 130,941 or 27.92 per cent of the total jobs created.

It also said in the report that the formal sector, which is predominantly, provided 130,941 new jobs, representing 27.92 per cent of the total jobs generated in the first quarter of 2015.

This, it explained, was a decline of 5.13 per cent when compared with the fourth quarter of 2014.

“On the other hand, there was also a 30.5 per cent (1,339 jobs) increase in the number of jobs created in the public sector of the economy, making it 5,726 new jobs generated in the public sector in the first quarter of 2015; the jobs generated in the public sector represents 1.2 per cent of the total jobs generated during the reference period,” the report noted.

The report added that there was a 46.39 per cent increase between the two periods and represented 71 per cent of the total jobs created in the first quarter of this year, the largest share of total jobs in any quarter since the bureau started tracking jobs since 2012.

The report indicated that this sharp increase in informal sector jobs is not surprising, given the numerous informal economic activities that came on during election periods.

“Additionally, the declining availability of formal sector jobs relative to demand for them is resulting in unsuccessful job seekers establishing micro businesses and engaging in more informal, lower skilled and often lower paying economic activities to make ends meet,” it said.