{"id":98588,"date":"2020-01-23T10:56:09","date_gmt":"2020-01-23T14:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/?p=98588"},"modified":"2020-01-23T10:56:09","modified_gmt":"2020-01-23T14:56:09","slug":"pm-claims-unemployment-down-to-eight-percent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/pm-claims-unemployment-down-to-eight-percent\/","title":{"rendered":"PM Claims Unemployment Down To Eight Percent"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cI am pleased to report to this nation that, as a result of the economic growth that our government has delivered, unemployment in our country is down to a single digit number for the first time since 2014.\u201d<\/p>

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Those were the words of Prime Minister the Hon. Gaston Browne during the 2020 Budget Presentation when he announced that the country\u2019s unemployment rate has been reduced to just over 8%.<\/p>\n

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\u201cLet me repeat it, unemployment has been reduced to a single digit figure of just over 8%.\u00a0 That, too, is cause for commendation; it is cause for pride.\u00a0 We are putting our people back in work, back in jobs, and back to having money in their pockets,\u201d said Prime Minister Browne.<\/p>

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The country\u2019s leader also addressed the sceptics whom he said would dispute that his government has so dramatically reduced unemployment from the unacceptable 25% that was inherited in 2014 when his government came into office.<\/p>

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\u201cThey will reject it, because they will be too ashamed, to confess that it was they who put our people into unemployment and 10 long years of poverty. They will reject it, because they will not have the good grace and decency, to admit that we had to turn their calamity into opportunity and their degradation into development,\u201d Prime Minister Browne stated.<\/p>\n

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In providing the data to support the decrease in unemployment, Prime Minister Browne said that the figures do not lie and produced the data<\/p>

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available from the Social Security Board which confirmed that the total number of registered employees has increased for six successive years.<\/p>\n

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While the number of registered employees was 42,682 in 2018; the number climbed to 43,535 in 2019.\u00a0 That, Honourable Members, is progress, it is advancement, it is delivering for the people.\u00a0 That is repaying the people\u2019s investment in our government with interest,\u201d he said.<\/p>

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The government of Antigua and Barbuda is the largest employer in Antigua and Barbuda.(Ends)<\/p>

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\u201cI am pleased to report to this nation that, as a result of the economic growth that our government has delivered, unemployment in our country is down to a single digit number for the first time since 2014.\u201d Those were the words of Prime Minister the Hon. 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