Record Unemployment hits Saint Lucia like an earthquake

The youth in St. Lucia are in serious trouble with the prospect of even more trouble on the horizon. Unemployment among them continues to climb to unprecedented record levels. According to the Director of Statistics, almost ¼ our working population (or labour force) is unemployed. In 2006, it was 14%; five years later it has climbed to 21%, with most of the unemployed comprising our youth.

What does government have in place for these kids when they graduate?

The Director of Statistics further reported that compared to the population increase of 5%, the labour force has increased by 15%. Let us look at some of the likely reasons for that trend.

Director of Statistics

Based on the findings from Statistics, the ratio of our incoming workforce to our outgoing workforce is about 2 to 1. Our incoming workforce is almost 40,000 whereas our outgoing workforce is between 14,000 and 21,000. Theoretically, we have twice the number of persons seeking employment than we have positions available; moreover, the fact that we do not have an adequate social security system like GB and USA makes the problem even worse.

What do we do to resolve that dilemma? In western democracies the theoretical solution is to grow the economy and to invest in sustainable labour-intensive industries.

Based on the foregoing claims, St. Lucia is a bit of a mystery. During the budget debate, the government reported that St. Lucia’s GDP grew by 4.4 percent; but so did its unemployment rate.  Currently St. Lucia has embraced a Ti Canal paradigm for development and if government has the audacity to claim that the economy grew by 4.4% while the world economy is in recession, then they may well have the gumption to claim that the Ti canal model contributed significantly to the growth of the economy.

But we have a government that notorious is for emulating its foreign minister and like him speaks from all corners of its mouth. If you listened to the PM’s budget presentation, you could not miss the familiar refrain that we were an economy in recession. The logical question is: how does the gov’t reconcile growth and recession in the same breath? That is where the mystery lies.

But the mystery is not difficult to unravel. Firstly, it’s a gov’t not schooled in the fundamentals of logic. If Gov’t could not differentiate between a “re-basing” exercise and real GDP growth, then how equipped it would be to run a country? A desperate regime will catch at any straw! So, gov’t took the statistic from the re-basing exercise and run away with it, claiming that it was an achievement.

The last budget had two “high low points of dishonesty”: firstly, the interpretation of the re-basing of GDP as an achievement; and secondly the libelous, mind-bending Grynberg affair.  

Earlier this week, the Powerhouse commented on Tucker’s attack on the youth by suggesting that young persons like Lorne Theophilus are unsuitable for politics by virtue of their age. This is tantamount to not just discrimination based on age; but it is equally a serious indictment against him as a legislator and also represents a gross disrespect of our constitution. Tucker should not only apologise to Lorne but also the persons he attempted to brainwash in the Choiseul/Saltibus constituency! As a legislator, he needs confess that the statement does not represent a policy position but was made in error!

This state-of-the-art stadium was meant for the youth; but government converted it to a hospital

Our youth are bleeding and they need urgent help in education, employment and recreation. Choiseul/Saltibus has found the ideal candidate in Lorne Theophilus. Long live Lorne!