Labour Minister Manzoor Nadir has dismissed a report by the U. S. authorities that unemployment in Guyana is on the increase. He said that a better analysis of the Guyana labour situation needs to be done. Nadir told Guyana Times International in a recent interview that he disapproves of statements by the U. S. embassy in Georgetown in regard to the employment situation in the country. He contends that the government has done all in its power to create more job opportunities for all Guyanese. He said there has been growth in employment through several initiatives run by government.
The local U. S. embassy, in its recently published Economic and Commercial Newsletter, stated that the country’s unemployment rate has increased by 11 per cent overall. It indicates that some 31,000 Guyanese are looking for employment. According to the report, this percentage has not changed for the past 18 months. This is in spite of the positive economic growth in 2010 and so far for this year.
Credibility issue
The labour minister told this publication that in 2010 the U. S. embassy’s economic newsletter stated that there was no change in the working population. But Nadir argued that, for the first six months of 2011, the working age population grew by 5100 and employment grew by 3000. Between 2010 and 2011, the general working population increased by 7300.
“The point here is that if the U. S. embassy’s publications are to be believed, then, for all of 2010, the working age population and the labour force were stagnant.
“It shows these categories as having the same numbers: no changes for 2010, quarter after quarter, but for the first half of 2011, there is movement. Clearly, there is a credibility issue with this data,” Nadir said.
Nadir said that from data recorded, it shows that between 2006 and 2010, the vacancies listed by employers have moved from 1001 to 2972, an increase of 197 per cent. “This is indicative, I emphasise, “indicative”, of the growth in jobs,” he said. Also, for the period January-July 8, 2010, vacancies have increased by 19 per cent, from 1573 to 1875. Additionally, in 2011, there were more than 500 vacancies which the Central Recruitment and Manpower Agency (CRMA) could not fill.
Questioned on what might be the reason for many academically-qualified persons being unemployed, he said this is caused by persons wanting to study what they like and not where the jobs and good paying opportunities are.
The labour minister told Guyana Times International that he agrees unemployment in Guyana is based upon poor skills match for available jobs. He explained that this was the reason behind the current administration, in its 2006 manifesto, pledging Gy$1billion to invest in building employable skills for the vulnerable. He said, “Thus far, in skills development programmes, this PPP/ C administration has spent in excess of Gy$1.5 billion, through the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, the Board of Industrial Training, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health.”
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