By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE unemployment rate rose by 1.4 per cent despite the labour force growing by slightly more in the second half of last year, according to the latest preliminary labour force report released yesterday by the Department of Statistics.

The survey covered a six months period since the previous survey was conducted in May, 2014.

According to the survery results, the unemployment rates in New Providence and Grand Bahama went up to 16 and 18.6 per cent, up one per cent and 3.9 per cent respectively from the previous survey.

The survey also marked Abaco's entry as a consistent subject of research, with the unemployment rate on the island identified as 20 per cent.

The overall unemployment rate in The Bahamas was 15.7 per cent.

The survey results show that youths between 15 to 24 continue to face a considerably higher rate of unemployment than any other group, with that group's unemployment rate being 31 per cent, an increase of three per cent from the previous survey.

The results also show that there has been a 22 per cent increase in the number of discouraged workers in New Providence, while Grand Bahama has seen a 55 per cent decrease in its number of discouraged workers, resulting in a net decrease overall.

Overall, the total number of people in the labour force was 201,040.

Although there was an increase in both the number of employed and unemployed people, the unemployment growth rate exceeded that of the employed, Department of Statistics Director, Kelsie Dorsett, said.

"Unemployment rate is a percentage of the total number in the labour force," she said. "If the number of the unemployed grew at a faster rate than the number of employed people, then you can have an increase in the employment rate. The employed and the unemployed totals the labour force so both of them can increase but at different rates and so that can bring about a change."

Ms Dorsett said Abaco's relatively high unemployment rate may reflect the occasional seasonal nature of employment there and the existence of immigrant communities that have high unemployment rates.

"Large pockets of Abaco have high unemployment rates, and they would be areas like The Pea and The Mud and Sand Banks etc and that tended to move the overall rate on that island up," she said. "And there's always the way seasonal workers are treated that could affect that figure in Abaco. In Abaco, we have a  lot of fishermen whose work is seasonal and depends on how they answer our questions when we do the survey that would determine whether they are out of the labour force during that period or whether they are actually unemployed."

As for statistics on Family Island employment rates, she said: "All studies that have been available to us show the unemployment rate tends to be very, very low (on the Family Islands) mainly because the amount of activity on those islands are very low to begin with. The only other island that is robust in terms of economic activity is Abaco, which is why we have decided to survey that island on a regular basis."

Offering her opinion of the future, Ms Dorsett said she doesn't believe the country will see a trend of continually growing rates of unemployment, noting that Baha Mar in particular is expected to employ many people when it opens this year.

As for the number of discouraged workers in the country, she said: "I could only guess that in New Providence people may have thought things were going very well in 2014 and because things didn't pan out as well as they wanted it to be, they withdrew again. There were activities, lots going on; you would've applied and done whatever and so that could result in the number of increased persons.

"You also had persons who were laid off during the course of the year and they could have become despondent, hoping that somehow they would find jobs but still discouraged and not actually going out looking."

According to the standard definition of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), discouraged workers are those not considered employed as they do not meet the criteria of unemployment, which include seeking work, being willing to work and being able to work.