Unemployment in this country is over 15%, closer to 20%, people stop looking especially if you are over 45, smh!!!

Even the international rating agencies don't fall for this nonsense anymore. They know the corrupt Crooked Christie-led PLP government would try have all of us believe S_H_I_I_A_T don't stink!

What a pointless statistic.

What utter nonsense! Everyone knows the overall real rate of unemployment in the Bahamas has been well in excess of 20% for years and is now rapidly approaching 30%.

A local professional Bahamian had a foreign colleague attached to an NGO (Non Government Organisation doing charity work here) do some sampling and analysis of the data set of the socio-economic conditions of Nassau, and the results were staggering. I was privy to some of the information.

First and foremost, the systemic unemployment rate is about 30% when you count the folks who have stopped looking, the young folks who have never tried looking but survive day-to-day with unofficial odd jobs or grifting, and those who live in aggregated family groups where one or two has a job, and the rest of the adults in the group do not.

The second major surprise was the amount of Haitians in the New Providence population. The numbers are higher than anyone suspects.

The third major surprise, was the endemic poverty. People are surviving on incomes way below the official poverty line. It is amazing how many there are, and how they keep it together in the face of a horrible economy.

The fourth surprise was the above average incidence of preventable diseases that have economic-impact parameters. Coupled to that, is a genetic preponderance for breast cancer among Bahamian women, and the lack of resources for proper nutrition is a factor.

All of these things are exacerbated by chronic and systemic unemployment. And it is insulting, that the well-fed director of statistics sits up at a microphone in a very porcine manner and announces that unemployment is lower. Even if it were (which is a lie -- it is not), it would only be a temporary stop gap measure to repair hurricane damage, and all of those folks are out of a job or will be shortly.

We are on the razor's edge of economic collapse, especially when the ramifications of the downgrade to junk status of the sovereign debt kicks in.

Does it really matter at this point in time. We're talking about temporary jobs for the most part. Lets focus on where the VAT $$ is going, why we're spending another $20 million on Clifton cleanup after $10 million was allocated and "somehow" used in Jan 2015. Lets focus on getting a refund on those Christmas Decorations by Arawak Cay.

Comrades! Thankfully, jobs were created before and after under the much talked about $334,000.16 Christmas tree wrap decorations were wrapped around trees.
Before, as in all the skilled and creative artsy workers who laboured at designing and making the wraps... And as in after the $334,000.16 was spent even more state funds be allocated to hire the workers to load this crap onto the trucks for hauling off to where it really belongs - the damn dump dump?
Is it just my curiosity to Ho, Ho-Hum, what in the hell did they spend the "16 Cents" on?

http://tribune242.com/users/photos/2016…

Is it just my curiosity to Ho, Ho-Hum, what in the hell did they spend the "16 Cents" on? You are not alone

Actually it was 16 cents for the surplus gunny sacks and and the rest of it went into Neville Whizdumb's pocket.

Comrade Banker, does you remember how the same crocus sacks they used make the Christmas tree wrap, was used by our grannies makes them Puff Leg homemade brand baggy panties?

Too young for that, but I do remember as a very young lad, visiting relatives in Moss Town, and I was appalled that a crocus sack was used for a door on the cabin of Mum's godmother.

the 16 Cents is the trickling down effect of the "investment".

Jokey Statistics. Do a check during Carnival and now a check during hurricane reconstruction.

so whats the margin of error on the statistics? 100%?

If you take a quick drive around New Providence, you will notice that with just a few days before Christmas many stores remain empty of customers but laden with inventory. But if you go to places like Mr. Ship It, Express It, even Fed Express and DHL they are bustling with business and some to the point that they can barely accommodate their customers or the merchandise they brought in for them. The same is true with Bahamasair, Jet Blue, The Mail Boat and The Betty K. Some people are spending days trying to locate and collect goods they purchased abroad either online or in person. And the local stores remain empty and unpatronized. So when January comes another set of stores will have to close, another set of employees will be terminated and government will have to cater to them through social services of national insurance. The internet has made it possible for consumers to go online and shop at the same prices that many store owners do. And now with the popularity of free shipping they can get their goods delivered to their door even for a fraction of what it costs to purchase them here. Yet government continue to pile more taxes on local businesses increasing their operating costs and causing more and more to fail and more and more Bahamians to become unemployed. And this is only the tip of the iceberg. Look at what is going on in the hotel\ tourism industry, the food and fast food business sector, the banking industry. The Bahamas has become a suitcase economy more now than ever, where too much of the money passing through the economy does not remain here. And the tax burden is disproportionate where many goods are being prepared or sold offshore and services are provided in a way to avoid taxes. So the economy continues to crumble.

Eventually government is going to have to differentiate between goods being brought into the country by consumers/end users and goods being imported by licensed businesses for tax purposes. Is it fair that private persons can get exemptions and import goods into the country at the same rate as persons who have to pay business license fees, property taxes, national insurance and other fees and taxes to operate their businesses? These people also hire employees and contribute to the GDP. They have to pay two sets of VAT: one when the goods are imported and another when the goods are sold. How can the compete with someone who can bring goods in and not have to pay these taxes?

The unemployment rate for New Providence is about 3 points below the national rate for the month of December. This puts the unemployment rate at 9%. This is not unusual for the month as many businesses take on extra staff for the holidays. What is unusual is that the restoration and repair works for hurricane Mathew is still going on so a lot more males are employed now that probably since the road works were completed. Also what is unusual is while temperatures remain relatively warm here, most of the US and Canada is covered under a below freezing winter blanket. So hotels are starting to see their occupancy numbers go up and some are hiring additional staff in anticipation of high occupancy in January and February. If Bah Mar starts hiring in January as promised with a partial opening in April, this should make the first quarter of 2017 very robust for the New Providence/ Paradise Island economies, with even lower unemployment numbers. And if the US economy continues to respond positively to Donald Trump's election to president, eventually some of that economic activity will start to flow into the Bahamas. The question is: Is the tourism plant ready and prepared to accommodate the additional inflow, and what additional advertising and promotions are being planned to attract more American visitors?

And if you are gullible enough to believe this, I have a hotel for sale out at Coral Harbour that needs minor repair, cheap! These people are trying to save their hides, not a word can be believed by these evil people.