Plan­ning Min­is­ter Dr Kennedy Swarats­ingh says the near­ly 6,000 jobs lost dur­ing the first three months of 2026 should not be viewed in iso­la­tion, ar­gu­ing that the de­cline re­flects a re­cur­ring post-Christ­mas em­ploy­ment pat­tern and does not, by it­self, sig­nal a weak­en­ing labour mar­ket.