“I 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.”
Those were the words of Prime Minister the Hon. Gaston Browne during the 2020 Budget Presentation when he announced that the country’s unemployment rate has been reduced to just over 8%.
“Let me repeat it, unemployment has been reduced to a single digit figure of just over 8%. That, too, is cause for commendation; it is cause for pride. We are putting our people back in work, back in jobs, and back to having money in their pockets,” said Prime Minister Browne.
The country’s 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.
“They 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,” Prime Minister Browne stated.
In providing the data to support the decrease in unemployment, Prime Minister Browne said that the figures do not lie and produced the data
available from the Social Security Board which confirmed that the total number of registered employees has increased for six successive years.
While the number of registered employees was 42,682 in 2018; the number climbed to 43,535 in 2019. That, Honourable Members, is progress, it is advancement, it is delivering for the people. That is repaying the people’s investment in our government with interest,” he said.
The government of Antigua and Barbuda is the largest employer in Antigua and Barbuda.(Ends)
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This is an erroneous argument. The fact that more persons have been registered does not translate to unemployment going down. What is missing here is the number of contributions. The PM is making a false assumption that registration is equated to one actually being employed. In using his yardstick the unemployment rate should be number of persons contributing divided by number of registrants and not just look at the broad registration (denominator) figure.
Are you saying then this is another Gastronomics?
Please come Run Guyana , Antigua PM brilliant go show our Government how to be pro active as a Government who always look out for the people’s interest.
These are the facts, and that is why Red Labour will govern this country for at least the next five elections, and maybe more. We moving up now.
A small independent island-nation like Antigua must be smart and savvy about finance and economics. PM Browne knows this and that is why he generally doing well in his role as PM.
Antigua needs to diversify away from tourism ASAP and needs to focus on new economy sectors like blockchain and cryptocurrency.
It’s really important for the government to enhance the CIP program to make it even more attractive to global citizens. Currently, if a single man becomes a CIP citizen and gets married 5 years later, he needs to pay $75K USD additional to add her, that’s crazy!
Nonsense
Any Antiguan and Barbudan who is 16, including many school children, can register with Social Security. Registration has absolutely nothing to do with employment.
GREAT job Hon. Gaston Browne.
The singers are out, but the fact is to get an accurate figure you have to look at the number of current contributors.
Once the government keep hiring unemployment is bound to go down.
Be careful of statistics….yes the number of people registered with social security is up, but it does not mean unemployment is down. It could mean more immigrants entering with jobs, could mean the overall population is growing (and the same percent or more of people still don’t have jobs), could mean social security is successful in getting people who always had jobs to register (the underground economy such as barbers, waitresses, someone in a cook shop etc who maybe never contributed before). So many other reasons why those numbers could be up
Some experts are now saying the true figures for unemployment are closer to 5 or 6%
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