Govt still mulling strategies to address unemployment

Government is currently in the process of formulating a definite plan to create job opportunities to address the unemployment situation in Guyana, according to Finance Minister Winston Jordan.
During a news conference on Monday, Jordan indicated that he was aware of the high rate of unemployment in the nation and would be working to have this addressed in the near future.
Jordan disclosed that the Government had requested the support of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in facilitating an official survey on unemployment.
He said there were no exact figures on state of the labour force in Guyana.

However, Jordan confirmed that it was the aim of the Government to have the survey completed so that a strategy could be crafted, which would efficiently address the state of the labour force.
“Not for many years have we had an official unemployment rate, all along we have been dealing with proxies. The last Government wasn’t interested in letting anybody know what the official rate was, there have always been proxies about it. But an official internationally accepted calculation, this is what we will be going for as soon as the IDB finishes with its technical assistance,” he stated.
Meanwhile, Head of the Statistics Bureau, Lennox Benjamin admitted that the rate of unemployment from the last census had been recorded at between 10.7 and 11 per cent.
In order to strategise on what can be done by the Government to reduce the rate of unemployment, Benjamin said a labour force survey was essential, but this has not been carried out for almost a decade.
He related that in 2008, they had done rigorous work with the US Bureau of Census to derive exact figures on unemployment, but at the time of implementation, permission was not granted to go ahead with the process.
As a result, the two entities were unable to have the national survey commence without the aid of the government or funding agency.
“Let me just qualify this by saying 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 by funding agencies, or a combination of both. So, we have not had a full-blown labour force survey for several years, possibly touching on a decade and in the interim what is used is what we call proxies,” he explained.
Benjamin disclosed that they have just completed intensive work with the IDB consultant team and they were looking to have a labour force survey completed.
According to him, the survey is set to begin in January of next year. This will be conducted, along with a living conditions survey that is expected to commence in August of next year.
Over the past month, the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) along with other unions, has been calling on the Government to reintroduce job creation programmes, which had been eliminated.
The Union had indicated that letters had been sent to the President, the Opposition Leader and the Speaker of the National Assembly to have their appeals heard for more emphasis to be placed on creating jobs for Guyanese.