THE numbers speak for themselves. When Senior Minister Dr. Ashni Singh spoke to the BBC World Questions audience at the Pegasus Corporate Centre on Tuesday evening, he highlighted an achievement every Guyanese should be proud of. In the past five years, more than 104,000 new jobs have been created in a nation that just recently crossed the one-million population mark; this job creation ratio is remarkable and hard to match globally.
Even the private sector admits that it’s now harder to find workers than to find jobs, making it clear that Guyana has entered a new economic era.
What makes this change even more impressive is its scale. This isn’t just a story about oil platforms in the Atlantic. President Dr. Irfaan Ali has rightly noted that average wages have risen across nearly every sector from 2020 to 2024: Agriculture, forestry, and fishing up 84 per cent; information and communication up 88 per cent; construction up 71 per cent; and arts, entertainment, and recreation jumping an impressive 114 per cent. These numbers reflect the benefits of a planned, varied economic strategy that is improving lives from the coast to the interior. The drop in unemployment from 12.8 per cent in 2020 to a record low of 6.8 per cent by the end of 2024 shows that growth is reaching those who need it most—ordinary citizens and their families.
Perhaps the most hopeful aspect is the progress in fairness. Female unemployment has decreased from 14.4 per cent to under nine per cent, and the gap between urban and rural joblessness has significantly narrowed. More than 50,000 Guyanese have received land allocations, and around 15,000 citizens become first-time car owners each year. These are not mere statistics; they represent families gaining assets, building wealth, and creating futures that seemed out of reach just a generation ago.
The rise of new, skilled job opportunities adds to this positive picture. Six thousand Guyanese now work in the oil-and-gas sector in technical and professional jobs that did not exist before, and the number of engineers, architects, and other skilled professionals is growing. Guyana’s $1.558 trillion Budget 2026—the largest in the nation’s history and presented without new taxes—shows a government dedicated to maintaining this momentum through investments in education, infrastructure, and workforce development.
Critics may point out the rising cost of living, as some did on Tuesday evening. This concern is valid and should never be ignored. However, it must also be balanced with the facts: Inflation remained low at 2.9 per cent in 2024, real wages are increasing faster than prices in most sectors, and a projected labour shortage of over 100,000 workers highlights that the economy is creating more opportunities than it can currently fill. Guyana’s challenge today isn’t about finding growth; it’s about managing abundance responsibly. This is the kind of challenge every developing nation should hope to face, and this government is tackling it directly.