Labour statistics not reflecting job losses, analysts say
...Ministry of Labour reports 234 retrenched in 2026
Official Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) disclosures from the Ministry of Labour reveal that 234 workers across T&T lost their jobs due to corporate retrenchment between January and July 2026.
The data, released following a formal request by Guardian Media, outlined workforce cutbacks across fourteen major private enterprises spanning key commercial sectors, including energy, financial services, healthcare and retail.
The figures showcase the diverse impact on the national labour market, with reductions reported from small family establishments to major multinational entities.
The customer service entity Teleperformance T&T Ltd reported the single largest reduction, retrenching 81 workers on March 23.
Financial services and offshore support also accounted for major cutbacks, with the Unit Trust Corporation retrenching 36 employees on July 9 and PHI Americas Ltd laying off 35 staff members on January 15.
Meat processing business Premium Quality Meats retrenched 17 workers on March 2, while energy multinational Shell T&T Ltd reported 12 retrenchments on July 2.
Security and light manufacturing firms logged identical workforce reductions.
King Aluminium Ltd retrenched 10 workers on February 25, matching the retrenchments reported by Safeguard Services Ltd on March 4.
Additional corporate cutbacks occurred across commercial and retail services.
Automotive supplier Laughlin and De Gannes Ltd issued notices in three separate batches—two workers on January 26, three on February 20, and one on March 10—totalling six retrenched employees.
Caparo Shop-Rite Supermarket Ltd and business services firm Corporate Dynamics Ltd also each retrenched six workers on February 12 and February 25, respectively.
Rounding out the disclosures, St Mary’s Bakery retrenched five workers on January 15; TOSL Engineering Ltd retrenched five on May 1, and healthcare vendor Ferreira Optical Ltd retrenched four on February 20. Facilities management service provider Servus Ltd recorded a single retrenchment on February 6.
The ministry confirmed that public sector entities—including state enterprises, statutory authorities, and government ministries—reported zero retrenchments under the Retrenchment and Severance Benefits Act during the same period.
While state bodies are not legally obligated to report general contract non-renewals or early retirements, statutory retrenchment notices remain mandatory for private employers.
Out of the 14 companies listed, only Ferreira Optical Ltd was noted as having a recognised majority union involved in statutory workplace consultations.
T&T’s hidden job crisis: Why national data falls short
Reports of job losses across both the public and private sectors over the past year should concern policymakers, but economist Dr Jamelia Harris says the country lacks the data needed to fully understand the scale and impact of retrenchment in the labour market.
Beyond the general concern over layoffs, understanding the nature of these job separations is essential for assessing the country’s overall economic health.
Harris noted that layoffs, contract non-renewals and dismissals have been reported across several industries in T&T, including the energy sector, manufacturing, hospitality and media.
While some workers have left jobs voluntarily, she stressed that much of what has been reported publicly points to involuntary job separation, a trend that could signal broader economic challenges.
“The distinction matters,” Harris said as she explained, “Involuntary job losses such as retrenchment, non-renewal of contracts and firings can indicate a stagnant or declining economy.Reports in the media are more of involuntary separation in Trinidad and Tobago, which is concerning; but not unsurprising given the present economic outlook.”
She said the prevalence of reports involving involuntary separations is concerning, though not entirely surprising given the country’s current economic outlook.
The economist also challenged the use of CSO labour force survey data as the primary measure for evaluating the impact of retrenchment.
In recent months, labour force statistics have been cited by some commentators to support either positive or negative assessments of labour market conditions.
According to Harris, that approach risks creating a false comparison stating, “This is actually a false equivalence, and not the correct approach to the analysis. The labour force survey is important, but it is not the appropriate indicator to assess churn in the labour market.”
Instead, Harris argues that the most useful measure for understanding job losses is the “separation rate,” which measures the percentage of total employees who leave or lose a job during a specific period.
She explained that this indicator captures the movement of workers out of employment, whether through layoffs, resignations or other forms of separation.
Equally important, she said, is the “job-finding rate,” which measures the percentage of unemployed people who successfully secure employment over a given period.
Together, the two indicators provide a more complete picture of labour market dynamics than employment and unemployment figures alone.
However, Harris said neither the separation rate nor the job-finding rate is publicly available in T&T, raising questions about whether the data is being collected and analysed by the relevant authorities.
“The bottom line is that to properly understand retrenchment, we need data on separation rates, which we do not have,” she said.
Harris explained that headline employment and unemployment figures could often conceal significant changes beneath the surface.
She gave the example of a quarter in which a large number of workers are laid off early in the period, but manage to find new jobs before the quarter ends.
In such a situation, overall employment and unemployment rates may show little or no change, even though the labour market experienced significant disruption.
“Employment and unemployment numbers may not change, but there was still high job separation,” she said, adding, “This churn in itself is an important indicator of the health of the labour market and the broader economy.”
She added that traditional labour force indicators also fail to reveal how difficult it may be for displaced workers to find new jobs or whether opportunities differ across demographic groups, skill levels, genders or ethnic backgrounds.
Another important consideration, Harris said, is job quality.
She pointed to World Bank data showing that vulnerable employment accounted for 21 per cent of all work in T&T in 2025.
Vulnerable employment generally refers to workers in jobs that lack adequate social protections, income security or employment benefits.
As a result, even if workers who lose jobs are eventually re-employed, the quality and stability of those new positions may be significantly lower than the jobs they previously held.
For Harris, the recent reports of retrenchment present more than just a warning sign for the economy. They also highlight an opportunity to improve labour market monitoring and policymaking.
Adding urgency to these concerns, Trevor Johnson, lecturer in Labour Studies, notes that official retrenchment figures often appear deceptively low compared to weekly headlines about business closures.
“It does raise the question as to whether the system is capturing all the job losses actually experienced over the said period. These figures may therefore reflect only those cases meeting the legal definition of retrenchment and formally reported under the Act, excluding other forms of job loss that fall outside it,” Johnson said.
He noted that the CSO in its most recent report shows that T&T’s total labour force stood at approximately 595 900 persons in early 2026, with recent quarterly unemployment figures hovering around 4.3 per cent to 5.4 per cent.
Another aspect to note, Johnson advised, is that many workers on contract in both the private and public sector whose contracts would have been routinely renewed are now quietly being released at the end of their current contracts.
“In other words, they are not being retrenched and therefore there is no requirement to report or give any notice to these said workers.
“In some cases, these workers may have been employed on contracts ranging from three to six months to two years being routinely renewed some for as many as six to eight years. However, companies and organisations are now claiming economic hardship and are reducing staff levels by not renewing contracts when they expire,” he explained.
Johnson also highlighted the passage of the Retrenchment and Severance Benefits (Amendment) Bill 2026 in the Senate.
He emphasised that the bill must now be debated and passed in the House of Representatives to become law.
Once enacted, the legislation would close critical loopholes in the current framework that leave employees vulnerable during corporate closures—a hardship clearly demonstrated by the former ArcelorMittal workers, whose families have endured a decade of uncertainty without relief since 2016.
Johnson urged the swift passage of updated retrenchment legislation to protect workers from historic and ongoing vulnerabilities, ensuring fair treatment and rapid conflict resolution during layoffs.
