–unemployment now in double digits, says Chief Statistician

By Ariana Gordon

THE Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is currently assisting the Bureau of Statistics with the conducting of a Labour Force Survey early next year. That survey will detect the number of unemployed persons in Guyana.

Chief Statistician, Lennox Benjamin on Monday, during a press conference hosted by the Ministry of Finance, said that a week of intensive work with the IDB has just been completed in that regard, and the Bureau is looking “to put a labour force in the field from January 2, 2017.”

LEVEL OF POVERTY
Benjamin said too that a living conditions survey that will determine the level of poverty here will also be conducted next year. That survey will begin in August 2017.

The revelations made by Benjamin followed questions on the rate of unemployment in Guyana. The Chief Statistician disclosed that Guyana has not done a Labour Force Survey for almost a decade. He said the rate of unemployment can be garnered from that survey. Accordingly, proxies are being used to quantify the rate of unemployment here.

“We had done substantial work in 2008 with the US Bureau of Census, but at the point and time of implementation we did not get permission to proceed.”

Benjamin explained that “When a national survey is put in the field, the first thing that has to happen is that the approval of Cabinet has to be given; when the approval of Cabinet is given the funding has to be secured either by government or funding agencies or a combination of both.”

Since no approval was granted, no Labour Force Survey was conducted for many years. He said the proxies are gathered from the census and household surveys.

DOUBLE DIGITS
“Based on those proxies we know that unemployment has been running at double digital… about 10.711… coming out of the last census there has also been an economic activity profile from which we will be getting that unemployment rate and I can say to you up front that it will be double digital. I don’t want to pre-empt by quoting a specific figure. I can say from the position I sit that it will again be double digital at this point in time.”

The Bureau of Statistic head said that one should not only be interested in the “overall top line indicator” but should examine the age groups, and gender profiles of those unemployed.

UNDEREMPLOYMENT
“In Guyana we focus a lot on unemployment, we need to focus equally on underemployment. We have now the emerging phenomenon over time of multiple jobs. It is no longer the time where you are a public servant and you go home at 4:30pm. You’d be surprised people have two and three jobs now,” remarked Benjamin.

The challenge for Guyana, he said, is that “we don’t want a labour force indicator at a specific point in time. We want something that is continuous.”

The problem, however, with a continuous Labour Force Survey is the fact that Guyana is significantly larger than its Caribbean counterparts.