SIB Says Employment Is Up

The quarterly press conference of the Statistical Institute of Belize was held today in Belize City. It’s a mixed bag of good and bad news. The good news is that employment numbers are on the rise as of September in the Belize District when the last labor force survey was conducted. The bad news is that the district with the lowest employment is the Toledo district. News Five’s Isani Cayetano looks at the figures.

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

Belize’s population estimate at mid-September stood at approximately three hundred and sixty-one thousand people, a little over half being of working age.  As of last check there were close to eighteen thousand, five hundred men and women jobless, while a hundred and thirty-four thousand, five hundred and twenty-one are employed in various capacities.  According to the latest Labor Force Survey conducted by the Statistical Institute of Belize, it represents an improvement, comparatively speaking.

Leopold Perriott

Dr. Leopold Perriott, Director General, SIB

“Of the working age population we have two sections.  It’s important to realize we have two parts to this particular group: people in the labor force and people not in the labor force and of all and most equal importance are people not in the labor force.  Of course, people like students, housewives, retired disabled persons and people in the labor force, well those are the people that are either employed or unemployed persons.  Unemployed persons we estimate at about eighteen thousand, four hundred and seventy-nine persons are unemployed, according to our definitions and the employed population which are full-time or part time workers, odd jobs, including catch and kill, as anybody would say, they are estimated at a hundred and thirty-four thousand, five [hundred] and twenty-one persons.  So, relatively small kinds of numbers to deal with.”

Of those numbers, a majority of employed persons are working in Belize District, while Toledo records the least amount of workers.

Dr. Leopold Perriott

“We estimate about sixty-four point three percent of the working age population are in fact in the labor force and so you’d notice there’s a high of about seventy percent of Belize’s working age population are in the labor force and there is a low in Toledo with only about fifty-five percent or so of the working age population of the labor force.  And so there’s a variety of people who are actually in the labor force and subject for carrying the burden of economics in this country.”

While the working class is responsible for carrying that burden, the economic outlook is that the level of economic activity increased by four point eight percent, during the months of July to September.

Jefte Ochaeta

Jefte Ochaeta, Statistician, SIB

“Up to this month of October, Belize has bought goods totaling one point six-four billion dollars.  This represents an increase of eighty point six million or five point two percent with respect to the same period of last year.  According to the Standard International Trade Classification categories, we had decreases almost throughout all of them with the exception of the CFZ, commercial free zones which was down by twenty-one point five million when you compare the ten months to last year and manufactured goods which were down by seven million.”

In terms of inflation rate during the last quarter, the lowest is in Corozal District.  Those figures are also placed in the regional context.

Angelita Campbell

Angelita Campbell, Statistician, SIB

“If you look closely you will see Corozal town reflecting the lowest inflation rate of zero point one percent, followed by Dangriga of zero point four percent. Then you have Belize district at zero point five percent. We have Orange Walk town and Belmopan recording the same inflation rate of zero point seven percent. And then we have Punta Gorda town reflecting a one point three percent and San Ignacio, one point six. Now we be looking at inflation rate in the region. We have Jamaica at eight point two percent; then we have Dominica there by two point nine percent and then closer to home, we have Guatemala at three point six percent; Honduras at six point three percent. We have El Salvador at one point nine percent; we have Nicaragua at six point six percent; Costa Rica at five point seven and Panama at two point one.”

Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.