The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas can get unemployment "down to single digits" by restoring employer confidence in the economy's growth prospects, the Chamber of Commerce's chief executive said yesterday.

Edison Sumner, speaking after Friday's release of the latest Labour Force Survey data, told Tribune Business that recent discussions with businesses in the retail and wholesale sector showed companies were willing to hire - provided the enabling environment was right. This, he argued, required the Bahamas to address skills gaps and inadequacies among its high school leavers; remove the 'ease of doing business' obstacles; strengthen access to capital for budding entrepreneurs; and address a Business Licence fee structure that resulted in many companies paying more in tax than they earned in annual profits. "I think we can get this down to a single digit number," Mr Sumner told Tribune Business of the 10.1 per cent official unemployment rate, "with proper planning, proper execution of strategy that makes it easier to do business in the country, and a reduction in red tape and bureaucracy that allows businesses to keep more of their profits.

"That will allow companies to hire more people when businesses are doing well. When the private sector feels the economy is doing well, they will spend more money and hire more people and expand their operations.

"There has to be a level of comfort in the economy and growth prospects out there to cause the private sector to take more risk, spend more capital and allow their business to grow."

The Labour Force data for November, released on Friday, revealed a minor uptick in the nationwide unemployment rate from 9.9 per cent to 10.1 per cent - meaning that one in 10 Bahamians looking for gainful work are still unable to find it.

The main 'takeaway' is that the Bahamian economy is still not producing sufficient growth to absorb the several thousand high school leavers that swell its ranks annually, plus the existing unemployed, even though Baha Mar and other developments were responsible for a 3,575 or 1.8 per cent increase in the number of those with a job to 203,730.

The total unemployment number rose by 4.9 per cent nationwide over the six months to November 2017, according to Department of Statistics data, rising by 1,070 over that period to hit 22,950.

This increase was aided by a 2,555 reduction in the number of government and state-owned enterprise (SOE) employees, which fell by 6.3 per cent from 40,990 to 38,435 in a period which included the aftermath of the May 10 general election.

Mr Sumner told Tribune Business that in speaking with employers last week, while many wanted to hire and expand staff they indicated there were structural and confidence impediments to doing so.

Among the obstacles identified were the 'ease of doing business', "making the process better and more efficient, where they're able to manage the taxes imposed on the private sector and make them less onerous", and the absence of basic skills among potential recruits.

Mr Sumner said the Chamber planned to meet with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) this week over the potential National Apprenticeship programme it is financing, which is designed to improve the "employability" of hundreds of Bahamians by equipping them with on-the-job vocational training and marketable skills.

He added that the Government and private sector were also in discussions, which involve the former's venture capital fund, over the creation of a micro lending facility that will provide capital to entrepreneurs unable to implement their ideas for lack of financing.

The Chamber chief executive said that unlocking the entrepreneurial potential of many Bahamians could be a way to reach those labelled as 'discouraged workers' in the Labour Force Survey - persons who have given up looking for work because they cannot find it.

Their numbers increased by 5.7 per cent to just over 2,000 nationwide in November 2017, with Grand Bahama seeing an increase in discouraged workers of 8.1 per cent - possibly explaining why the official unemployment numbers for that island dropped slightly - from 12.4 per cent in May to 12.1 per cent. Many people simply gave up looking for work.

Mr Sumner also said the private sector needed to feel they were doing more than "staying in business to pay the Government more taxes", pointing to Business Licence fees as an example where companies paid more to the Public Treasury than they took home in profits due to its calculation as a percentage of gross turnover.

He called for the Labour Force survey to capture data from islands other than New Providence, Grand Bahama and Abaco, suggesting there was "a story to be told" by the likes of Exuma and Bimini, whose economies were performing well.