(Trinidad Express) – Trinidad and Tobago’s jobs are disappearing amid a worsening downturn in the local economy.
Job losses have climbed by the thousands within the past few months, with the greatest cuts in the energy, services and construction sectors.
The latest victims come from the local operations of Spanish exploration company Repsol YPF, which announced a number of redundant positions on Wednesday.
The construction sector has been hit the hardest, available data from the Trinidad and Tobago Contractors Association indicated.
Association president Mikey Joseph told the Express that up to the end of March, approximately 1,800 workers had been retrenched.
He said during a telephone interview that most of the job losses had come from contractors attached to government housing and building projects, as well as road maintenance.
“Local contractors have no new work, only projects from last year, and these are running out,” he said.
“Things are going to get worse,” he responded when asked about unemployment in the sector.
As many as 2,500 workers were retrenched last year from just one major private builder, he said and added that, based on information he received from subcontractors in the energy sector, another 1,000 jobs had been lost over the past few months.
Joseph said that a number of Housing Development Corporation contracts for new homes had not yet been renewed, and other projects along the Port of Spain waterfront were winding down, adding to the joblessness in the sector.
Energy company Repsol’s management team told staff in Port of Spain yesterday of a new organisational structure.
Repsol has operated mature oil and gas fields Teak, Samaan and Poui in Trinidad and Tobago and owns part of the operations of the Atlantic LNG trains at Pt Fortin.
