By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

The Minister of Labour yesterday said the government was “extremely pleased” that youth unemployment appeared to be trending downward based on the latest official data.

Dion Foulkes said that although the decrease was relatively small, with the Labour Force Survey showing a one per cent decline in the six months to November 2018, it nevertheless represented an improvement from 24.1 percent in May.

“In Abaco there was a three percentage decrease in the unemployment rate, something that is very significant,” he added. “In Grand Bahama, this is the second consecutive survey that has shown a decrease in the unemployment rate.

“One of the things we have focused on as a government is decreasing the unemployment rate for young people. This survey, although it was only one percentage point, there is an uptick of employment of young people between the ages of 15 and 25 that was revealed. We’re extremely pleased about that. One of the things we are concerned about is the unemployment disparity between men and women. Anecdotally, I don’t understand that because it seems like more women are working than men in the various industries.”

Mr Foulkes said that the decline in discouraged workers was also encouraging. This figure fell by 9.1 percent in New Providence and 9.8 percent in Grand Bahama.

“This is an area that is not well understood by a lot of people,” he added. “The ILO describes a discouraged worker as a person who is not looking for a job because they believe there are no jobs out there. That is what a discouraged worker is.

“A discouraged worker is not formulated, and is not included, in the unemployment statistics. Whenever there is an increase in discouraged workers there can be an artificial decrease in unemployment. When there is a significant decrease of discouraged workers the unemployment rate can be squeezed because of that.

“One of there reasons we think there was a significant decrease in discouraged workers is the various loan programmes we are doing with the IDB for young people, and also the Labour on the Blocks initiative we did last year.”