By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Perry Christie confirmed to parliamentarians yesterday that during his administration’s two years in office, labour market conditions improved slightly with 2,600 jobs added to the Bahamian workforce.

During his 2014/2015 Budget Communication, Mr Christie explained that employment figures, which covered six months of the year 2013 up to November, resulted in a lowered jobless rate. That rate, he said, fell to 15.4 per cent from 16.2 per cent overall.

The job creation numbers, however, disagree with a figure printed on the inside cover page of a magazine created and funded by Bahamas Information Services (BIS) to mark the government’s two years in office.

The 60-page document was distributed last week with a caption which read: “Almost 7,000 new jobs created as Christie government marks 2nd anniversary in office.”

But if labour force statistics since 2011 are considered, nearly 7,000  jobs were added.

At that time, the employed labour force consisted of 160,185.

Later in 2012, Department of Statistics officials concluded an increase of 165,255 and then in 2013 166,595 persons were employed.

The overall number of new jobs during that three-year period came to 6,410 new jobs.

Mr Christie said: “Labour market conditions improved slightly over the six months to November 2013, reflecting the mild pace of the recovery in the domestic economy.

“According to the Department of Statistics’ Labour Force Survey, the jobless rate narrowed to 15.4 per cent from 16.2 per cent in May, as the number of employed persons rose by 2,600 to 166,595.

“In terms of the main labour markets, the unemployment rate in both New Providence and Grand Bahama fell by 0.3 and 2.7 percentage points to 15.6 and 16.8, respectively. 

“In addition, the number of discouraged workers contracted by 1,205 persons, as both Grand Bahama and New Providence experienced declines of 18.5 per cent and 13.5 per cent respectively.”

Additional labour force statistic state that there remains 30,285 unemployed in the Bahamas.