By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Opposition's finance spokesman yesterday seized on the latest workforce data to assert the Bahamian economy "has been put into reverse" with 5,571 jobs lost in the seven months to January 2025.

Kwasi Thompson, the east Grand Bahama MP, responding to the Bahamas National Statistical Institute's (BNSI)  Labour Force Survey for January 2025, said that between the 2024 third quarter and this year's first three-month period the number of employed Bahamians dropped from 220,296 to 214,725.

"The Bahamian economy has been put into reverse. According to the BNSI report, the unemployment rate grew by some 50 percent in less than a year, shifting from 7.2 percent up to 10.8 percent," he asserted.

"Just as troubling, the BNSI highlighted that 65,000 people are classified as "under-employed", managing only to find what the BNSI calls "part-time” employment. That is almost one in every three employed people in the country. Four years later, the utter failure of the PLP’s stewardship of the Bahamian economy is written plain.

"Stopover tourism, the country’s primary economic engine, is flat and trending in the wrong direction." Mr Thompson pointed to high inflation, high taxes, high electricity bills and "a stalling economy" as evidence of regression.

He pledged that an FNM administration, if elected to office at the upcoming general election, will "remove unnecessary delays, digitise processes and unleash stalled private and public projects to rapidly create new jobs and opportunities".

Mr Thompson also pledged to invest $50m in small and medium-sized businesses, and expand financial support for Bahamian entrepreneurs "by tens of millions of dollars, enabling them to grow, hire and strengthen local communities".

There would also be a "focus on building local ownership in the green, blue and orange economies, ensuring Bahamians are at the centre of national growth", along with the development of a technology industry.

The Opposition finance spokesman added that it plans to "make technology a major pillar of the economy by investing in digital infrastructure, e-government services, training and incentives to attract technology businesses and create thousands of high-paying jobs". Many of the initiatives cited, though, have long been discussed or attempted before, suggesting that proper execution may be a key.

Apart from an 8,885 increase in the number of unemployed persons between the 2024 third quarter and January 2025, the BNSI survey revealed that 65,225 persons - representing 30.4 percent of the 214,725 workers currently holding jobs - were deemed to be under-employed, "working part-time while wanting additional hours".

The data also disclosed that 28 percent of men employed in the Bahamian workforce in January 2025, and 17 percent of women, had "no qualification" - again exposing issues related to productivity, competitiveness and company output, especially given the world's shift to the 'digital' and knowledge-based economy of the 21st century.

Youth unemployment, which accounts for persons aged between 15 and 24 years-old who are looking but unable to find work, stood at 20.9 percent and was almost double the national jobless rate. This meant that more than in five Bahamians, some 6,960, were looking for work but unable to find it. And close to one in three of all Bahamian workers are deemed to be under-employed.

 The Institute, unveiling its survey findings, said of the Bahamian workforce: "The largest occupation group was ‘service workers and shop market sales workers’ with 57,685 employed individuals, accounting for slightly more than one-fourth (26.9 percent) of the total employed population.

"This group had the largest number of employed females, 33,880. The second largest occupational group was ‘professional, science and engineering professionals’ with 46,835 workers, followed by ‘craft and related workers, plant and machine operators and assemblers’ with 35,120 employed persons. This occupational group had the largest employment of males, 31,615.

"The largest employer among industry groups was ‘community, social and personal services’ employing 78,375 individuals, representing 37 per cent of the total workforce. There were 48,720 females employed in this industry group accounting for 46 percent," the Institute added.

"The second largest industry group was ‘hotels and restaurants’, which employed 41,260 persons. The industrial group ‘community, social and personal services’ had the largest employment of males, 29,655.

"When the data was examined by qualifications, the proportion of women with degrees outnumbered men by nearly two to one. Conversely, a larger proportion of men (28 percent) than females (17 percent) had no qualification."