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Survey to determine official unemployment rate in 2017

May 28, 2016 News

…PPP government was unconcerned — Jordan declared
Bureau of Statistics Chief Statistician, Lennox Benjamin, on Monday revealed that an official unemployment rate will be assessed next year following the instigation of labour force survey, which will be rolled out with the assistance of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
Guyana was without an unemployment rate for over a decade. Benjamin declared that this situation will soon be rectified. He said that they are looking to put a labour force in the field by January 2, 2017 to measure the rate.
He said that Guyana has always been using proxies—data from the national population census and the households budget surveys—to determine its unemployment rate. However, he explained that the measurement of an unemployment rate or profiles on economic activities is essentially carried out by way of a labour force survey.
He said that his department had done substantial work in 2008 with the US Census Bureau but when they were about to implement, permission was refused. Thereby, Guyana has been without a “full-blown labour force survey for several years, possibly touching a decade” and in the interim, estimated figures were used.
And based on those proxies, Benjamin revealed that unemployment has been double digital, about 11 percent. He added that the figures will remain constant based on the last national population census.
Thus, he stated that the Bureau has engaged the attention of the IDB for technical assistance to start the assessment. He noted that they are not only interested in the “top line” indicator of unemployment but also in the age groups and gender profile which is being affected.
Similarly, he noted that the focus should also be on under-employment as there is high occurrence of Guyanese working two or three jobs to survive.
Finance Minister Winston Jordan stated that the surveys would allow for more frequent data on unemployment to be available to the government. In that same breath, he lambasted the previous government for showing no interest in letting the people find out what the true figures were.
“The last government wasn’t interested in anybody knowing what the official rate is,” he chided.
On the other hand, Benjamin indicated that they were also working toward the release of living conditions survey, which will be poverty-related, in August 2017.
According to the Bureau of Statistics, the unemployment rate is only calculated at the time of a census (which is executed decennially) or when a labour force or an alternative appropriate survey is executed.

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