The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE country’s unemployment rate could be as high as 40 percent, Minister of Labour Dion Foulkes said yesterday but stressed officials won’t know the exact figure until the Department of Statistics does its jobs survey.

“In terms of the employment rate in the country, there’s no scientific evidence of what the percentage is. It is pegged around 30 percent. Some people say it is higher, but we do not know that,” Mr Foulkes said outside Cabinet yesterday.

“There (are) approximately 225,000 Bahamians that comprise the workforce and some 55,000 of that group have applied for the unemployment benefit,” Mr Foulkes said.

“...If you do just a rough calculation, you can see the unemployment rate will be anywhere between 30 and mid 30 to 40 percent. Until the Department of Statistics does a scientific survey, we will not know exactly what the percentage is.”

His comments came after Immigration Minister Elsworth Johnson said last week that “50 percent of the population is unemployed” due to the COVID-19 pandemic and economic shutdown.

Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis has previously said the unemployment rate due to the pandemic was estimated at 30 percent.

Meanwhile Minister of Finance Peter Turnquest expects the tourism industry, the country’s number one economic driver, to rebound “towards the end of this year” or the beginning of next year.

Noting that the government’s predictions fall “in line” with the worldwide estimates as it relates to the travel industry, the minister said officials anticipate that the Bahamas will have a strong tourism comeback in the months ahead, creating more employment opportunities.

However, as a result of COVID-19’s impact both locally and internationally, Mr Turnquest said changes in the country’s tourism industry and how the Bahamas does business moving forward will have to be made.

Speaking to reporters ahead of yesterday’s Cabinet meeting, Mr Turnquest said: “Of course, we know that there are going to be changes in the industry, some sectors and some entities in these sectors may not make it as a result of what has happened and the significant strain that would’ve been caused on their individual businesses.

“But, we are going to do whatever we can to ensure that we stabilise and support as many industries as we can as we have been doing to make it through this period and to recover on the other side with more creative and more innovation able to take off with the new opportunities that will be created as a result of the changes in the way businesses is being done.”

He continued: “So, you know, we are very optimistic that the future for the Bahamas remains bright and the fundamentals of the economy are still strong, and the demand of our destination is still strong.

“… (So) we anticipate that our number one industry, tourism, will rebound towards the end of this year (and) the beginning of next year and that is in line with global predictions for the travel industry.”

After the country closed its borders in March, major hotels across the country suspended their operations, temporarily laying off workers.

Speaking about the eventual re-opening of the hotel industry yesterday, Mr Foulkes also told reporters that officials are hopeful that the sector will re-open sometime this month.

He said: “The hotel sector is probably the only major sector in the country now that is not open. We are very hopeful that (in) the latter part of this month that some of the major hotels will begin to open and the hotel workers could begin to return to work.”

Meanwhile, with upcoming construction projects set to begin soon, Mr Turnquest said yesterday officials feel confident that the move will help facilitate more employment and aid in the country’s economic recovery from COVID-19.

“We are confident that the construction projects, the large-scale construction projects that have been on the board are going to kick off this year, particularly towards the later part of this year and the new year,” he said.

“And that will give us another boost on not only domestic activity but also foreign direct investment with some of the projects that are on board,” the deputy prime minister said.

“All those things along with our efforts to deepen and increase the small and medium sized enterprise sector, we believe is going to help us to lift this economy back to where it was.”