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Nearly 17,000 already unemployed as grads go job-hunting

EconomyNearly 17,000 already unemployed as grads go job-hunting

Most unemployed persons have been looking for work longer than 6 months

With thousands of young people graduating from school in the recent weeks, many may want to know how hard it will be for them to find a job. Data just released today by the Statistical Institute of Belize (SIB) indicate that already 16,730 persons who are 14 years or older and available for work have not been able to find a job, although the majority of them have been looking for work for more than six months.

This translates to an unemployment rate of 11.1%, down from the 11.7% rate reported in April 2013. The highest rate of 14.2% was reported in the Belize District.

Dr. Leopold Perriott, SIB’s Deputy Director-General, said that the Belize economy had netted just over 3,000 jobs, and 10,605 people who want a job have been unemployed for more than 6 months. Perriott noted that while four out of five men are in the labor force, only one in two women are.

Also, high unemployment among young people ages 14 to 24 is evidently a persistent problem, with the unemployment figure normalizing by the time this cohort reaches ages 25 to 35, Perriott explained.

Youth ages 14 to 24 had an alarming unemployment rate of 20.4% in April 2014, slightly down from 22.2% in April 2013, although thousands of new jobs were added in the construction, agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors. Perriott noted that although new jobs in construction were up, they were the “low paying, grungy type of jobs.”

The unemployment rate for these young males was closer to the national average at 12.8%, contrasting sharply with females who are three times as likely to remain jobless, with a rate of 36.4%.

Perriott noted that the educational level of people actually employed is fairly low, with almost 60% of the labor force having a maximum of a primary school education. There are more men employed with a secondary education or less than there are women with a similar level of qualifications; however, those workers with a tertiary level qualification are mostly women. (Information released this week by the University of Belize indicated that 7 out of every 10 graduates in their 2014 cohort were females.)

The April 2014 labor force survey of 6,500 working-age persons from 2,753 households was used to calculate the size of Belize’s labor force, which now stands at 151,317.

Perriott revealed that whereas the labor force is made up of 93,411 males (61.7%) and 57,906 (38.3%) females, just over 1 in 10 persons wanting a job is unemployed. He also indicated that while the labour force grew by 1,900 with over 3,000 males joining the workforce, the number of females in the workforce declined.

The survey showed that although 10,377 new jobs were created, particularly in the construction, agriculture, forest and fisheries sectors, 7,318 jobs were lost, especially in two major sectors – accommodation and food, as well as wholesale and retail – resulting in a net gain of 3,059 jobs.

Perriott noted that most of Belize’s labor force—over 20,000 persons—are underemployed because they work less than 35 hours a week. This includes 10,847 females (or 53.6%) and 9,372 males (or 46.4%). As many as half of these persons actually work less than 20 hours a week and earn $895 or less.

Labor force surveys are done for April and September each year – with unemployment figures being generally higher in September due to the closure of seasonal industries. By way of comparison, the unemployment rate was 11.7% in April 2013 but in September 2013, it was up by almost 5 percentage points, to 16.1%.

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