The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

The 1.4 percentage point rise in the Bahamas’ unemployment rate was described as “worrisome” by a top private sector executive, adding that it demonstrates a need for greater economic growth.

The Department of Statistics Labour Force Survey, which covered the six-month to November 2014, showed that the unemployment rates in New Providence and Grand Bahama went up to 16 and 18.6 per cent, up 1 and 3.9 percentage points respectively from the previous survey.

The survey also marked Abaco’s entry as a consistent subject of research, with the unemployment rate on the island identified as 20 per cent. The overall unemployment rate in the Bahamas was 15.7 per cent.

Gowon Bowe, the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation’s (BCCEC) chairman, told Tribune Business: “Those numbers are certainly going to be worrisome.

“There was a lot of joy and excitement over the decline, and the Government was touting its success in getting the unemployment numbers down. I think there may be a number of anomalies that would contribute to the spike in November, such as persons coming out of school and finding gainful employment immediately.

“This high unemployment rate clearly demonstrates the need for greater growth in the economy. That means we have to improve this country’s competitiveness and the ease of doing business, so that we are expanding businesses and not contracting.”

The Department of Statistics survey found youth aged between 15 to 24 years-old face a higher rate of unemployment than any other group, which was pegged at 31 per cent - an increase of 3 percentage points from the previous survey.

K Peter Turnquest, the east Grand Bahama MP and Free National Movement (FNM) deputy leader, said this underscored the need for vocational training.

“With respect to youth unemployment, we told the Government that there was no time for gloating because we knew that there were several thousand students leaving school in May, and there was no provision made for them,” he said.

“Nor was there any prospects on the horizon for them to be employed. Many of them were coming out of school with limited skills, which will continue to be a major issue that affects the significant increase in that category. These kids are coming out of school without any specific employable skills. That’s something that we have to pay attention to and do a better job of providing careers guidance. We know that some of them are not going on to tertiary education and we have to look very seriously at this idea of vocational training.”

Mr Turnquest added: “The unemployment numbers simply prove what we have been saying all along. We know that the economy overall, as the Central Bank has indicated, has been sluggish. There have been very few bright spots in industry, and any brights spots in our arrivals has been in the cruise business, which we know does not translate into direct jobs in any significant way.

“As the infrastructure work done under the former government winds down, there has been nothing that has come along to replace that. What we see happening now is being controlled and restricted to specific groups.

“When the last survey came out in May, the Government was quick to jump on that news of having succeeded in providing jobs. We called them out then, saying that it could not be, because if that was so the unemployment rate would certainly have been much more reduced. In fact it would have represented at that time, I’m sure, temporary work, whether through specific government projects or in the case of Grand Bahama, temporary work that would have been going on at the Memories Hotel.”