The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

THE country’s labour force survey is set to begin next month, according to labour director Robert Farquharson.

“It’s going to be the standard report that’s done twice a year,” he told The Tribune yesterday. “It hasn’t been done because of COVID. It’s done in April and September of each year, but because of COVID it has not been since 2019.”

He added: “As a result of the survey, the unemployment rate will be issued.”

It will take place in the first three weeks of September.

Prime Minister Phillip “Brave” Davis says the country’s unemployment rate is now below 20 percent, a major decrease from that of the pandemic, which he estimated at around 45 percent.

Last month, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) warned that Bahamian workers are unlikely to enjoy an “equitable rebound” in employment conditions post-COVID, with the pandemic likely to have worsened existing skills gaps.

The multilateral lender, in unveiling a $150,000 initiative “to design a talent pipeline that closes skill gaps” in key economic sectors, said COVID-19 had only served to exacerbate long-standing weak labour market conditions that resulted in one out of every five job seekers aged under 25 being unable to find work pre-pandemic.

Justifying the project, which it said will “support workers who are vulnerable to structural and technological changes,” by equipping them with the skills demanded by employers, the IDB added: “Labour market conditions in The Bahamas have been weak for many years.

“Throughout the previous decade, unemployment rates in The Bahamas remained in the double digits, largely due to a continued overhang after the global financial crisis (of 2008-2009). Youth unemployment rates have been persistently higher. For instance, in May 2019, the unemployment rate of individuals aged 15-25 reached 20 percent, exactly twice the national unemployment rate. This already difficult situation dramatically worsened with the pandemic.”

The Bahamas’ “extreme reliance on the tourism sector” for employment, with around two-thirds of jobs dependent on the sector - a ratio the IDB said “is high even for Caribbean standards” - made COVID-19’s impact “especially dramatic.”

While no official unemployment survey has been conducted since the pandemic began, at the peak of lockdowns, border closures and other COVID restrictions it was thought that more than half the Bahamian workforce had been laid-off or furloughed. The economy’s subsequent re-opening has slashed the jobless figures, but unemployment is still thought to remain stubbornly high in the double digits - and above pre-pandemic levels.