-propping up unemployment numbers with part-time jobs handouts
Guyana’s Labour Force Survey for the 3rd quarter of 2021 shows 41,800 Guyanese who are searching for work are unemployed. This is 4,900 more than the 36,900-total unemployed at the end of 2019. The PPP is now handing out low-paying part-time jobs in an effort to prop up unemployment figures.
The regime promised “economic dynamism” but the rise in unemployment is directly connected to poor performance in almost all non-oil sectors of the economy. 2021 alone saw sharp contractions in many non-oil sectors: 34% reduction in sugar production, 20% reduction in rice production, 3.8% reduction in Bauxite, 14.8% reduction in gold production, and more.
Now the PPP has decided on a campaign of giving out temporary, part-time jobs in the public sector. The program appears similar to the CSO program where youths in Guyana’s indigenous communities are paid 30,000 per month for part-time work. The CSO program has long been stained with widespread allegations of the PPP forcing CSO workers to participate in political campaigning. How the part-time jobs will be managed and what criteria must be met for being employed in the program is yet to be made known.
With 41,800 nationally unemployed, Guyanese are wondering where the 50,000 promised jobs, two years later. Or where they will find the extra 9,000 people to fill the 50,000 jobs for that matter since there aren’t 50,000 unemployed. Though with this being the same PPP that shamelessly accused the APNU+AFC of losing 30,000 jobs at a time when the total number of unemployed Guyanese was 36,900, there are very little grounds for trusting any of their statements.
More, In The Ring.
