With the help of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), a labour force survey that determine the official unemployment rate will begin in January 2017, Chief Statistician Lennox Benjamin says.
Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Benjamin informed that Guyana has been without an unemployment rate for about a decade and has always been using estimated figures.
He explained that the measurement of an unemployment rate or profiles on economic activity are essentially done by way of a labour force survey. He said his department had done “substantial work” back in 2008 with the US Census Bureau but at the point of implementation “we did not get permission to proceed.
“So we have not had a full blown labour force survey for several years possibly touching on a decade.” He said that in the interim proxies from the national population census and household budget surveys are used.
He said that based on those proxies, it is known that “unemployment has been at double digits, about 10.7, 11 (%) approximately.” According to Benjamin, it is known that coming out of the last census there has also been an economic activity profile from which the department will be getting the unemployment rate. “I can say to you upfront that it would still be double digital, he said.
He said that his department is not only interested in the top line indicator in the unemployment figure but wants to look at the age groups and gender profile.
Benjamin said too that the focus should equally be on under employment and he noted that people now have multiple jobs.
Minister of Finance Winston Jordan, who was present, told reporters that it was after recognising that the country did not have an official employment rate that the IDB was approached for technical assistance.
He said that the surveys that will be done would allow government to generate the unemployment rate on a frequent basis.
“The last government wasn’t interested in anybody knowing what the official rate is,” he said.
According to Benjamin, Guyana has a challenge that the smaller Caribbean countries don’t: size. He informed that a week of work with an IDB consultant team has just concluded. “I can say now that we are looking to put a labour force in the field from January 2, 2017 [and] a living conditions survey, poverty-related, from around August of next year,” he added.
A lot of the background data, he said, will flow from these.
Meanwhile, with regard to the 2012 population census, he informed that from this month end parts will be posted on the Bureau’s website.
“We have put a preliminary report in the public domain since June of 2014…,” he said, while adding that the department was congratulated by a major regional body for the details that went into the preliminary report. “But unfortunately I know that it has been grossly under-utilised,” he lamented.
He said the Bureau has posted the age structure of the population on its website. He indicated that by month end the national profiles of the population followed by some of the economic activities and education profiles, housing and foreign-born component of the population, would be posted by June month end. “The thing about a census is it takes out a lot of the speculation,” he said.
When it released its preliminary results in July, 2014, the Bureau of Statistics made it known that Guyana’s population had dropped to 747,884 in 2012, and Benjamin had said the reduction was mainly influenced by migration.
