A Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) study says that youth unemployment in Guyana is hovering around 40%.
The finding was contained in a regional study entitled “Youth are our Future: The Imperative of Youth Employment for Sustainable Development.” Which was unveiled at the Bank’s 45th Annual General Meeting in St Kitts-Nevis May 21-22, a release from the CDB said.
Key among its findings, the release said was that youth unemployment rates in the Caribbean are among the highest in the world at nearly 25% for countries with available statistics. The adult rate is said to be about 8%. Youth for the purposes of the study was defined as that cohort between 15 and 24.
The release said that the regional countries with the highest persistent youth unemployment were Guyana and Suriname which, since 2000, have consistently been above 30%, with the rate in Guyana hovering around 40% since this time. The report added that total unemployment rates in Guyana were also persistently high.
For years, the former PPP/C government had been pressed on unemployment figures here particularly among youth and those who would have left the University of Guyana but such data has not been available. The former PPP/C government had been criticised for not generating new jobs in the economy and had deflected criticisms about the perceived high rate of unemployment.
The CDB release said the study was conducted within a framework that seeks to promote sustainable employment, especially for youth, guided by the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO’s) Decent Work Agenda and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Data for eight of the Caribbean countries reveal that only in Trinidad and Tobago did youth joblessness rates fall below the world average, and this was during the period 2006 to 2010. Between 1991 and 2012, all other Caribbean countries had a youth unemployment figure above the world average.
Most of the countries surveyed had a relatively consistent youth unemployment rate over the period, but The Bahamas, Barbados and, to some degree, Belize, demonstrated a spike in youth unemployment since 2007 which was attributed in part to the recent global economic crisis.
The CDB release said that a number of causes and consequences of youth unemployment were pinpointed including the state of the economy; structure of the labour market; lack of relevant skills; lack of experience; lack of knowledge of vacancies; limited opportunities due to health status or disability, location (i.e. rural location or general lack of transport options); stigma and discrimination due to age, ethnicity, criminal record, gender, motherhood, poverty and other causes.
It said that mong the direct personal consequences of youth unemployment identified were the lack of means to support self; participation in anti-social behaviours; engaging in negative behaviours as a consequence of social exclusion, low self-esteem, hopelessness and ambivalence;
