—President Ali says, points to recent statistics showing reduction in unemployment rates
—highlights diverse opportunities outside of oil and gas

President Dr Irfaan Ali today hailed significant improvements in Guyana’s labour market, attributing the most recent gains to a diversified economic strategy and targeted government policies.

Speaking on recent data from the Bureau of Statistics, Dr Ali said unemployment had dropped sharply from 12.8 per cent in 2020 to 6.8 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2024.

He also highlighted a reduction in female unemployment from 14.4 per cent to under 9 per cent and said the gains were evident across both urban and rural areas, signalling more equitable regional development.

“Unemployment rates are also fairly balanced across regions. So it is not to say that the jobs are only created in urban centres,” the President said, adding:

“When you look at the distribution of jobs and the analytics behind unemployment rates, you will see that it is evenly distributed in rural and urban centers, which speak to the fact that government growth and private sector growth is following the development agenda of the country that is driven by infrastructure, that is driven by policies to push agriculture, tourism, manufacturing, agro processing.”

Defending his administration’s economic agenda, Dr Ali rejected critics who, he said, reduced the national story to oil and gas alone. He urged attention to the broader range of sectors driving growth from agriculture and manufacturing to tourism, health services and green technology and called for constructive engagement with the facts.

“Don’t let the parrots sing their negativity like the Kiskadee wake up this morning with a beautiful song of prosperity in a country that is rising and rising at a rapid pace,” the head of state said.