By DANA SMITH

Tribune Staff Reporter

dsmith@tribunemedia.net

LABOUR Minister Shane Gibson hit out at the FNM for criticising the recent unemployment figures, explaining nothing the government does is good enough for the Opposition.

Speaking yesterday outside Cabinet, the Golden Gates MP also said the government has many more proposals on the table to encourage the country’s grim unemployment rate to continue to decline.

As for rising unemployment on Grand Bahama, he said, the answer lies in the future opening of The Reef hotel and noted the government has “some good things in store” for that island.

It was last week that the Department of Statistics revealed the country’s unemployment rate had dropped by less than one per cent. A small decline of .7 per cent put the rate to an even 14 per cent.

In New Providence, unemployment fell from 14 per cent to 13.1 per cent; but in Grand Bahama, unemployment rose from 17.3 per cent to 18 per cent.

Mr Gibson said yesterday: “It is always positive when we see the unemployment rate being reduced. I think it speaks to some of the things we are doing in trying to turn the economy around.”

However, he noted, the government is still “very cautious” of the thousands of Bahamians who are still unemployed – “so this is not a time to gloat.”

“This is a time really to continue to put our muscles to the wheel and see how we can continue to do what we were elected to do and that is to try and turn the economy around and take unemployment back to where we left it when we left office back in 2007,” Mr Gibson said.

He also noted the criticism from the FNM.

Party Chairman Darron Cash had said the government has done nothing to stimulate employment and the “small gains” are due to the work of the previous FNM government.

Party Leader Hubert Minnis noted that young Bahamians “continued to suffer” with the unemployment rate for that group standing at 30.7 per cent.

“Unfortunately for those in the FNM, nothing good we do is good for them. So we expect that they would criticise the process, that they would question whether or not the rate actually went down,” Mr Gibson said.

“The unemployment rate really got out of hand under the previous administration. They did absolutely nothing to turn the economy around, they created false hope. Actually, they tried to reduce unemployment by putting more persons on a temporary job programme.”

Mr Gibson said the Ingraham administration’s 52-week job programme “obviously didn’t work” because of its temporary nature and further, the previous government spent more than was intended on that programme and other initiatives.

“When you look at all that they did to try and create employment, they failed,” he said. “We’ve done some things, we’ve started to see some signals now of the economy turning around and we will continue to do what we were elected to do and try and see how we can bring that employment rate down as low as possible.”

There are “several developments” currently in the works to help combat unemployment, Mr Gibson said.

“I know there’s one in Bimini that’s supposed to create 100 plus jobs,” he said. “There are several projects and proposals that we have in front of us, here in New Providence. We have some definitive plans in terms of trying to reduce it (unemployment).”

As for Grand Bahama, he noted: “It (unemployment) is a big problem (in Grand Bahama) and I think the opening of The Reef hotel will assist with that.

“I think there are a couple of other proposals that we are discussing right now – I think the Reef Hotel will come through a lot sooner than those others – (but) we continue to look at those proposals. We have some good things in store for Grand Bahama.”