By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A former Bahamian Contractors Association (BCA) president yesterday said construction is preventing "an alarming number of things happening" due to its employment of unskilled young men.

Leonard Sands signalled to Tribune Business that levels of crime and social disorder could be much higher if it were not for the sector hiring workers who might otherwise find themselves on "the streets" amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Arguing that construction was "underpinning" The Bahamas' fragile economy at present, Mr Sands said the halt that will be caused by the weekend lockdowns on New Providence and Abaco will not have a material fall-out for the industry given that it was largely a 9am to 5pm Monday-Friday operation.

"The sector is strong. It's not necessarily where it was before COVID-19, but right now we're underpinning this economy," he told this newspaper. "The home building sector is doing what it's doing. There are not a lot of projects, but enough to keep young men employed.

"There could be more work, but the sector is an essential service. A lot of people are getting paid, and it's underpinning the economy. If those people in construction were unemployed you'd see an alarming number of things happening, but the sector's holding its own which is a bright spot with all of this. It's holding its own.

"It's a lot of people who are not about on the streets. Not all those people are employed, but enough are employed to not have the kind of issues we could have, and that's a good thing."

The last Department of Statistics workforce survey showed just shy of 20,000 persons are employed by the Bahamian construction industry, making it one of the key sectors to revive and stimulate in a bid to pick up the slack from the tourism industry.

Construction has always been viewed as an industry able to absorb many of The Bahamas' semi-skilled and unskilled workers. While always dangerous to stereotype, higher unemployment among this labour force segment would further strain Bahamian society amid COVID-19's devastating impact and likely result in even worse crime levels.

Mr Sands, meanwhile, said the impact of the latest COVID-19 restrictions on the construction industry was "not worth the discussion". He explained: "In my view, the weekend activity activity across the country is not as much as people would expect, so I think the effect of construction not happening at the weekend is very, very minimal impact"

While obtaining building materials and supplies could be made more time-consuming, and less efficient, by hardware stores being forced to offer curb-side services only, the ex-BCA chief said contractors would swiftly adjust through ordering their materials in bulk. The greatest impact from curb-side, he added, will be felt by homeowners needing to obtain supplies for their own projects.

However, Stephen Wrinkle, another ex-BCA president, told Tribune Business he was more concerned about retail's switch to curb-side than the weekend lockdowns or 7pm curfew during the week.

"I don't know if the weekend lockdowns are going to affect us as much as having to do curb-side shopping," he said. "That's not as big a headache as curb-side services and not being able to go into a store to get what you need.

"That slows everything down and is extremely time consuming. If they don't have what you need you have to go to another store and be on a long line. I can live with the weekend lockdown, but would like to get back to some normality on weekdays."