The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Government cannot take sole credit for the 31,735 jobs added to the labour force since its May 2012 election, the Chamber’s chief executive warning that businesses “cannot feel they are working just to pay taxes”.

Edison Sumner told Tribune Business that the private sector needed to be given “due recognition” as the Bahamas’ primary job creator, given that it employed the majority of the 217,750-strong workforce.

He spoke out after learning that “some circular is going around that the Government has created 31,735 jobs” during its four-and-a-half years, a claim that was repeated by Bahamas Information Services (BIS) director, Elcott Coleby, in his weekly blog.

“Let’s look at that in perspective,” Mr Sumner told Tribune Business. “The private sector generates the jobs in the marketplace, and it’s the private sector that carries the burden of meeting payroll every week or month.”

He added that as the Bahamas’ largest generator and creator of jobs, it was “incumbent upon the Government to pay close attention to private sector employers to ensure they get the help they need”, especially when representations were made to it.

These representations, Mr Sumner said, included “lowering the bureaucracy, lowering the barriers to entry, lowering the barriers for getting business done; the ease of doing business”.

“We hope to have a chance to revisit and review the taxation system, so businesses don’t feel they are just working to pay taxes,” he told Tribune Business.

“That is a very frustrating place for businesses to be, especially in a challenged economy. It’s important that the Government side understands this fact, and does what is necessary to ease the frustration, so companies can increase productivity and profitability.

“Once that happens, they will increase the level of employment. If they feel they are working to pay taxes and increase the Government’s revenues, we will have challenges and frustrations,” Mr Sumner continued.

“The fact is that the jobs created in this country come in the private sector, and the private sector ought to be given recognition that in these challenging times.

“We can only get unemployment lower if investing in human capital pays off in terms of increased profitability and the ease of doing business in the country.”

The November 2016 Labour Force survey, though, said less than two-thirds of the country’s workforce is employed by the private sector, pegging this percentage at 62 per cent or just over 140,000 of the total.

In what could be interpreted as an indication of the ‘size of government’, the Department of Statistics survey said the largest employer in the Bahamas was the ‘community, social and personal service’ industry, accounting for 30 per cent of the workforce.

It added that this sector included the “civil service, police service and domestic service”.

Mr Sumner, meanwhile, emphasised that Bahamian employers were “not going to hire for the sake of hiring’, which he described as “a socialist system”, but only if the additional workers were going to deliver returns in terms of increased productivity and profits.

“Many of them are coming out of the schools without the required skills employers are looking for,” he said. “As many high school leavers come out without qualifications and training, they will be employed at the minimum wage, and not have opportunities to train themselves up.”

The Government, especially following the downgrade of its creditworthiness’ to ‘junk’ status, by Standard & Poor’s (S&P), has been eager to talk up any positives - including the 1.1 percentage point drop in the official unemployment rate to 11.6 per cent in November 2016.

This compared to 12.7 per cent in May, and Mr Sumner agreed that the decline was “encouraging” for the Bahamas and the private sector, given that the jobs created were “more sustainable” than those that produced the last decline.

The Chamber chief executive said that while May’s unemployment numbers may have received a boost from the temporary jobs created by Junkanoo Carnival, the latest figures - as acknowledged by the Department of Statistics - had benefited from the rebuilding post-Hurricane Matthew.

“It certainly was a good thing,” Mr Sumner said of the fall, describing the November numbers as “more realistic as far as employment is concerned”.

He explained: “In comparison with the last numbers, which gave a lot of weight to temporary jobs from the Carnival, these jobs are a little more sustainable, a little more long lasting...

“They will be lasting a little longer than for Carnival-type activities. They will be more sustainable, and last several months, rather than a few weeks or days.”

The November Labour Force survey said 1,385 persons had been employed as a direct result of Hurricane Matthew rebuilding efforts, with the construction industry seeing a 16 per cent growth since May 2016.

“That gives a little more confidence, even though we’ve seen quite a few lay-offs from the hotel sector,” Mr Sumner said, referring to the jobs losses at the likes of the One & Only Ocean Club and Treasure Bay casino, which will not have been picked up by the survey.

Also encouraging for the Government will have been the fact that November’s decline will have occurred despite the inclusion of 3,00-5,000 high school leavers, who would not have been counted in the May survey.