And while the GDP is down, unemployment is up – an expected mix for a faltering economy. That’s the figure coming out of the labour force survey, conducted in September of this year. It’s the counterpart to the April 2016 survey which showed unemployment at a 10 year low of 8%. Well, September doesn’t bear such good news. Unemployment is up to 11.1% - which is just about one percentage point more than where it stood in September 2015. Statistician Curwen Arthurs explained:
Curwin Arthurs - Statistician I, SIB
"So looking at the unemployment rate so we see that we had increases in the size of the labour force many due to women entering in but we also saw increases in terms of the labour force in terms of employed persons but also in terms of unemployed persons. So what that lead to is the national rate going up from 10.2% to 11.1% so it was a combination of the labour force going and more persons entering into the labour force mainly females at a rate higher than jobs were being created."
Unemployment was highest in the Stann Creek and Belize Districts, and three times higher among females.
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