Shane Gibson
LABOUR Minister Shane Gibson yesterday clarified job figures he announced in the House of Assembly on Monday, telling The Tribune that the 30,000 jobs he said were created from May 7, 2012, to May, 2014 are a “mixture” of previously unemployed people and those who were employed, but had transferred to new companies from their current jobs.
However, when he spoke in the House on Monday, Mr Gibson did not specify that some of the 30,000 jobs he had said were created from May 2012 to May 2014 were not all new jobs obtained by persons who were then jobless.
Yesterday, Mr Gibson stressed that the job figures, which he received from contribution records at the National Insurance Board (NIB), are important to show economic activity.
When contacted for comment on the matter yesterday, FNM Chairman Darron Cash said Mr Gibson’s job figures are “ridiculous”.
“Given the statements made by the Minister of National Insurance and Labour Shane Gibson about his government creating 30,000 jobs since returning to office in May 2012, it is little wonder that the country is in the financial mess that it is in and little wonder that this is by far the most deficient and incompetently prepared budget in many years,” Mr Cash said.
“Simply stated, these ministers either do not understand simple arithmetic, how unemployment and labour force statistics are accumulated or they are so desperate for a political win that they are prepared to play so fast and loosely with the truth that they would say anything to make themselves look good.”
Yesterday, Mr Gibson explained what he meant when he contributed to the budget debate in the House.
“The 30,000, those are persons who were not on those companies’ payrolls on May 7, 2012. Some would be persons who had not worked for a while and some will be some who transferred from somewhere else,” he said yesterday.
He said NIB is conducting an exercise to determine how many people included in that figure were previously unemployed.
“If you have 30,000 jobs created today, it doesn’t mean the unemployment figures would be affected because some people may transfer from other jobs to accept them.”
However, when he spoke in the House on Monday, Mr Gibson did not specify that some of the 30,000 jobs he said were created from May 2012 to May 2014 were not all new jobs.
“He (Philip Brave Davis) asked me to go to National Insurance, ask them for a list of all the companies that registered since May 7, 2012, ask them for a name of the list of the persons who companies took off their payroll six months prior to May 7, 2012, then give me the list of all of the individuals, the new employees, these companies start to contribute for between May 7, 2012, and May, 2014.
“Mr Speaker, you know what we came up with? We had 43,000 persons, who companies began paying contributions for the first time since May 7, 2012, to now, Mr Speaker. Then we did a cross-reference, we said hold on a second now, there were some persons who actually came off of those companies’ pay sheet. So we did the exercise, it was 13,000, so 13,000 from 43,000 leaves 30,000.
“So we had approximately 30,000 persons who were employed today and employed between May 2012 and May 2014 who were not employed prior to that time.”
Comments
GrassRoot 10 years, 4 months ago
".. or their employers did not pay NIB previously...." this is all stupid lawyer talk. You always need a translator to figure out what they are trying to say.
ThisIsOurs 10 years, 4 months ago
The deception was clear when he first made the statement, and if his intent was not to deceive, God help us. He's heading NIB.
Well_mudda_take_sic 10 years, 4 months ago
Public need to know Christie has three cookie jars to raid (bleed) at the taxpayers expense:
(1) National Insurance Fund, and of course shameless Shane is more than willing to help Christie take whatever cookie he wants from this jar;
(2) Crown Land, cookies from which go to whomever he chooses in his infinite discretion;
(3) Bank of The Bahamas (majority owned by the government), and of course McWeeney and Demeritte are happy to do the PM's bidding no matter what it may be as long as capital to cover the losses comes from that other cookie jar - the National Insurance Fund!
SP 10 years, 4 months ago
Mr. Cash said...."it is little wonder that the country is in the financial mess that it is in and little wonder that this is by far the most deficient and incompetently prepared budget in many years,”.???
FNM Chairman Darron Cash is just as loopy if not more so as Shane Gibson.
Everyone knows the country is in the financial mess that it is in because the FNM were borrowing money and giving $100's of Millions in contracts to foreigners instead of local contractors.
The little naked emperor Hubert Ingraham told the PLP "they will fail in two years" because he dam well knew he had left the deficit run country dead broke and at the brim of our borrowing debt ceiling with nowhere to turn.
Both PLP and FNM were deficient and incompetent in running the countries affairs.
Dressed up in coat suits & ties, standing around in the House Of Assembly for 40 years talking pure bullshyt, while lining pockets of friends family and lovers.
Neither party had enough damn sense to listen to DECADES OF CRIES AND WARNINGS from numerous qualified experienced Bahamians on the ground, in the trenches at hands on levels in tourism, education and other areas, that continued non attention to these veins carrying the lifeblood of the country would lead to absolute failure.
PLP & FNM jackass's had their heads so far up their own ass's they couldn't even see regional competitive resort destinations building new dynamic tourism products all around us.
EVEN HAITI had a 20% increase in tourism while the Bahamas continues to lose market share.
http://www.caribbeannewsnow.com/headlin…
SHUT TF UP Darron Cash and Shane Gibson....ALL YALL SUCK!
John 10 years, 4 months ago
What the government needs to concern itself with is how many businesses will close down or terminate some of their workers after VAT is implemented on January 1, 2015. While VAT may be the first tax levied directly on services industries, it is an additional 7.5% being added to the already 25-45% customs tax being paid by retail businesses, and the up to 80% tax paid on automobiles. With 12% population already living below the poverty line, the government must find ways to reduce the tax burden on the working Bahamian. If a proper study is done one may find that the tax burden on the average Bahamian surpasses that of an average American, but the standard of living in the Bahamas is much lower than most parts of the US, and the misery index is higher.
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