Unemployment hit high of 40 percent during peak of pandemic but officials say that figure has since come down
NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Minister of Labour Dion Foulkes said yesterday that the Minnis administration created and helped facilitate thousands of jobs prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and after.
During his presentation in Senate during the 2021/2022 budget debate, Foulkes touted the Minnis administration’s work during its tenure.
He insisted that prior to the global pandemic, some 15,000 jobs were created while unemployment “dropped to a ten-year low”.
Foulkes said the Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis-led government made a “conscientious decision” not to fire any public servants from the public service during the pandemic, nor reduce their pay.
The labor minister indicated some 8,000 jobs were created recently or will come on stream shortly.
He pointed to his ministry’s Labour on the Blocks programme, which he said delivered over 1,500 new jobs, and noted that the government’s 52-week job program, which has helped train and employ 1,000 participants, has been renewed.
Foulkes also insisted that the government “incentivized and worked with the private sector and business community to encourage them to retain their existing employee numbers and, where possible, create new job opportunities”.
He outlined a series of government projects currently in the pipeline that are expected to create thousands more jobs for Bahamians:
- The latest Baha Mar expansion project, which has created 500 construction jobs and 700 permanent jobs;
- The Pointe hotel, which will be opening in two weeks and will engage 400 permanent employees;
- The renovation of Sandals Royal Bahamian, which has employed hundreds of Bahamians in its construction stage and will employ 1,000 Bahamians on a permanent basis;
- The Aqualina condo project on Cable Beach, which will provide 300 construction jobs;
- The Goldwynn development on Cable Beach, which has employed 175 Bahamians;
- The Sterling Global Group’s development on Paradise Island, which has and will employ 500 Bahamians; and
- The Nassau Cruise Port project, which created 500 construction jobs and is expected to create hundreds of permanent jobs upon completion.
Foulkes also underscored the employment growth anticipated through the government’s plans to develop a Government Employment Incentive Programme that would give employers value-added tax breaks while simultaneously creating “2,500 new employment opportunities”.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, labor officials estimated unemployment in the nation got as high as 40 percent, though the substantive minister has asserted that that rate has drastically been reduced since The Bahamas reopened its tourism industry.
While a preliminary Labour Force Survey was released in December 2019 for only New Providence, the last survey for the nation was for the period May 2019.
The December 2019 survey excluded Abaco and Grand Bahama — the two islands hardest hit by Hurricane Dorian in September 2019 — because the population displacement would cause inaccurate data, according to officials.
At the time, New Providence had an unemployment rate of 12.9 percent.
In May 2019, the unemployment rate for The Bahamas stood at 9.5 percent.
Joblessness dropped nationally from 10.7 percent in November 2018 to 9.5 percent in May 2019.
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