The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Deputy Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

AHEAD of the Department of Statistics’ Labour Force Survey, Deputy Prime Minister K Peter Turnquest said he expects unemployment figures to show some improvement.

He predicted yesterday that Gross Domestic Product growth along with the start of numerous investments in the country among other things would have a bearing on job numbers.

In January, labour officials said the unemployment rate increased from 10 percent to 10.7 percent as of November 2018.

Unemployment in New Providence climbed from 10.1 percent to 11 percent, despite statistics showing 2,300 jobs were added to the labour force since the previous survey.

“I am hopeful that the job statistics will start to show some improvement,” Mr Turnquest told reporters outside Cabinet yesterday.

“Our expectation is that should be the case given that there is GDP growth this year given that we have had a number of investments that have started to actually come out of the ground this year and again optimistic about other projects that are in the pipeline that we should start to see some activity this year.”

Asked how long it would be before Bahamians begin to feel the effects of this growth, Mr Turnquest said: “There is always a lag between the announcement of an investment and when people start to feel it and then you have the construction sector that will begin to feel it before the ordinary retailer or the ordinary worker will feel it.

“So we have gone through two years of planting seeds. We are beginning to see the green shoots as a result of that and I suspect that this year we’ll start to see some real growth.”

It was announced in a press statement yesterday that the Department of Statistics will conduct its annual survey throughout the month to determine how many people are employed, seeking employment and educational levels, age, occupation as well as size and location of the labour force in the Bahamas.

Officials will visit selected households in New Providence, Grand Bahama, Abaco, Inagua and the Berry Islands.

The Labour Force Survey is now fully automated, using the computed assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) tablets with built in flows and edits. This replaces the previous paper questionnaires and also eliminates the need for data capture processes afterwards.

Official enumerators from the Department of Statistics will be wearing highly visible vests and identification badges. They will also have letters explaining the survey along with a summary sheet that will have data from the May 2018 survey.

In accordance with the Statistics Act, all selected households are required to respond accurately. They will provide valuable information about those who are employed, those who are unemployed and those looking for work.

If householders have questions, they are asked to contact the Department of Statistics at 604-4000 or 604-4015.