Unemployment Figures – Are They Up or Down?

John Briceño

The Leader of the Opposition, to bolster his argument of economic crisis, used the figures on employment between 2008 and today. Not surprisingly, Area Representative for Belmopan John Saldivar used unemployment figures during that same period to bolster his argument that the economy was looking good and getting better.

John Briceño, P.U.P. Leader

“Since 2008, more than fifteen hundred jobs have been lost in the Corozal

Free Zone alone. When we left office in 2008 over three thousand employees worked in the Corozal Free Zone, today that number stands at one thousand five hundred and twenty-one. In papaya, over two hundred and sixty jobs have been lost.  At its peak, papaya employed over seven hundred people, so really the job loss in papaya has been even more devastating when looking beyond just this past year.  In banana, over four hundred jobs have been lost over the past six months.  All together over three thousand three hundred jobs have been lost in key industries alone. So to say that the unemployment rate has gone down is at least a fiction if not a fraud on the people.”

John Saldivar

John Saldivar, Area Representative, Belmopan

“I don’t know if he noticed but unemployment today is the lowest it has been in the last five years. And the 2008 unemployment figure to which he refers has to be clarified by the fact that there was bloated spending, bloated borrowing…unsustainable and that’s why we were where we were in 2008. In 2012, we were at fifteen point three. We took it down to twelve point nine in 2013; eleven point six in 2014 and now it is down to ten point one percent. That is sustainable Mister Speaker. That is what we call prudent management of our economy. Perhaps Mister Speaker, this single indicator is the main reason why we have won a third term: jobs are being created, people are working; people are satisfied with the U.D.P.”