The continuing economic uncertainty has hiked the country’s present unemployment rate to about nine percent, according to the latest employment statistics.
Assistant Director of Labour Dorothy Godet said yesterday that the employment rate still remains “stable.” Ms. Godet said earlier in the 2002, unemployment stood at just over 7 percent.
Today, Cypreanna Winters, a statistician in the Department of Statistics, said that the rate of unemployment now stands at 9.1 percent.
The Department of Labour, meanwhile, continues to work to assistant unemployed persons find jobs, Ms. Godet said.
She said last month, the department received over 300 applications for jobs, 200 of which were referred. Of this number, some 50 persons have already been placed on various worksites.
But despite the uncertainty, according to Ms. Godet, Bahamians are not yet losing their jobs at an alarming rate.
There have been a number of redundancies reported in recent weeks, particularly in the hotel sector.
The government, meanwhile, has placed a freeze on hiring in response to the situation.
Just recently, the government also ordered its various ministries and departments to cut back on spending by five percent.
Officials, meanwhile, point out that there are several professions that are in demand.
Ms. Godet said that while she would not discourage school children from studying accounts and other important subjects, there is a great demand for both construction workers and security officers at the moment, particularly considering the ongoing construction at the Emerald Bay Resort in Exuma.
But according to Karish Lightfoot, office manager of Executive Security Services Ltd., while there is a need for additional officers, it is difficult to find qualified persons to fill those jobs.
Her company alone has openings for 20 security guards.
Ms. Lightfoot said a security officer must be over 5 feet 7 inches tall, heavy built, and a high school graduate with good writing and communication skills. At the same time she said, such a person must also take his or her job seriously.
“Many persons do not appreciate the job of a security officer,” she told the Bahama Journal today.
“Security officers are not simply watchdogs or persons who guard a particular property, but someone who must be able to work with the public and detect certain things. So, it always seems tricky to find a person fitting all these characteristics nowadays.”
Ms. Lightfoot added that with the present state of the economy, there is also the issue of businesses not offering an acceptable pay scale.
“Security officers are generally underpaid,” Ms Lightfoot said. “Depending on the business, they receive between $4 and $7 an hour.”
Assistant Executive and Financial Controller of No-Tolerant Security & Investigations, Elizabeth Sargeant added that the recently implemented 40-hour workweek also poses a problem for persons hoping to join the security profession.
“There is always a need for security officers but many of them refuse to work 40 hours a week,” she said. “They seem to rather not work at all and very few people are interested. Many view this simply as a job and not a profession, perhaps because they feel intimated by not being able to carry a gun.”
By Macushla Pinder, The Bahama Journal
