The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A senior Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation (BCCEC) executive last night said the increased 16.2 per cent unemployment rate was “certainly a concern to us”.

Responding to the Department of Statistics report on the May 2013 jobless numbers, which showed the rate had increased by some 2.2 percentage points over November 2012 levels, Edison Sumner said the BCCEC was working through its Chamber Institute to boost both ‘soft’ and technical skills in the Bahamian workforce.

Noting that this was intended to make workers “more employable” and boost workforce productivity, Mr Sumner told Tribune Business: “When the unemployment rate rises, it certainly is a concern to us.”

The increased official unemployment rate, as measured by the Department of Statistics, does not come as a huge surprise given the level of overall activity in the Bahamian economy.

With relatively few investment projects on the near-term horizon, apart from Baha Mar, which is still a year away, the economy has not been growing fast enough to absorb existing unemployed workers - let alone the 5,000 school leavers that join the labour force every May.

It is unclear whether the increased May unemployment rate was sparked by an influx of school leavers, but the data will make further grim reading for the Government and wider society, as it shows almost one out of every six Bahamians looking for work cannot find it.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently projected that the Bahamian economy needed to grow at an average rate of 5.5 per cent for the next five years to both absorb school leavers and cut the existing unemployment rate by 50 per cent, and it is a long way from achieving that.

On the positive front, if there is one, the Department of Statistics report noted a 3.1 per cent increase in the size of the labour force to 195,660 persons, with the number employed also increasing.

“However, the increase in the number of unemployed was greater, resulting in an increase in the unemployment rate, which now stands at 16.2 per cent for the country,” the May 2013 Labour Force survey found.

“Both New Providence and Grand Bahama experienced increases in their unemployment rates. In the case of the former, the rate increased from 13.1 per cent to 15.9 per cent, and in the latter, from 18 per cent to 19.5 per cent.”

That means that almost one in five Grand Bahama residents seeking work cannot find it, an indication the problems facing that island’s economy continue to increase.

And the prospects for young Bahamians aged between 15-24 remained bleak, with their overall unemployment rate slightly up over November 2012 levels at 30.8 per cent - indicating almost one out of every three cannot find work.

Still, the number of discouraged workers, who were either not looking, or have given up, looking for work, fell by 26 per cent in New Providence and 47 per cent in Grand Bahama.

The Department of Statistics interpreted this as an encouraging sign, and said the decision by many persons to re-join the labour force was one factor behind the unemployment rate increase.

“As a result of increased prospective business projects, more persons are optimistic about finding jobs and consequently rejoined the labour force,” the Department of Statistics said.

“Hence, the number of persons in the country who previously did not seek employment, but were able and willing to work (discouraged workers), declined by 33 per cent since the last survey.”

It added: “According to the standard definition of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) adhered to by the Bahamas and most countries, including those of the Caribbean, United States and Canada, discouraged workers are not considered unemployed and therefore were not a part of the labour force.

“In view of the fact that this category of persons has rejoined the labour force, the number of unemployed persons increased resulting in a higher unemployment rate.”