Former Trade Minister Vasant Bharath has called on the government to release the true unemployment rate in its budget presentation on October 7.
Speaking on CNC3’s The Morning Brew to host Hema Ramkissoon, Bharath said the current 5.1 per cent rate being touted by the ruling People’s National Movement was incorrect.
Speaking in the Senate in March, Minister in the Ministry of Finance Allyson West said this country’s unemployment rate was 4.8 per cent and on par with developed countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom.
But Bharath contends that rate, which was based on data from the Central Statistical Office (CSO) from the fourth quarter of 2017 does not reflect the true rate in T&T.
According to data from the CSO, the unemployment rate decreased from 5.1 per cent in the third quarter of 2017 to 4.8 per cent in the fourth quarter of the year.
“The latest unemployment figures are as of the last quarter of 2017, and that is 5.1 per cent that has not taken into account the 5000 or 6000 people who would have been sent home from Petrotrin, it does not take into account all the other peripheral workers who would have been dependent on Petrotrin, the TSTT workers, the Agostini workers, the Berger workers or any of those who have been sent home within the last year,” Bharath said.
He told Ramkissoon that the government would have no choice but to continue to tout those numbers, however, as it seeks to appease the population ahead of two major elections in the next 12 months.