While welcoming a recent report by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) which noted that unemployment rate in the country has dropped to 12%, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo today said that he believes the IDB figure does not reflect the true state of the country’s unemployment statistics.

At a PPP press conference, Mr. Jagdeo said there has been a significant decrease in unemployment in the country over the last three years, noting that the government has made several interventions to ensure that people return to work especially those who were reeling from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I think it is underestimated, that the rate of unemployment now is even lower and the drop is not by 3 percentage point from 2021, and although that was from 2021, we have gotten back a lot of people to work already, that were affected due to COVID.  So, this is a constant worry of ours, that is why we keep pushing,” Mr. Jagdeo noted.

He said the government tackled both structural unemployment and unemployment which was as a result of the pandemic.

According to the Vice President, the construction sector and the government part time job initiaitve alone account for about 35,000 persons who were not previously working, now being employed. In other areas such as Mining and Agriculture, the unemployment rate has also seen a marked reduction.

‘We managed to get people back to work, a lot who were unemployed in the mining sector and the sugar belt and many other areas have now gone back to work. So, we tackle structural unemployment as well as the COVID-related unemployment in addition to the new sectors we have,” Mr. Jagdeo noted.

Majority of the employment opportunities, Mr. Jagdeo observed have been benefitting younger persons who he said appear excited to be contributing to the country’s development.

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