PM Defends Low Unemployment Rate Amid Public Skepticism

Prime Minister John Briceno says the country’s low unemployment rate is a reflection of his administration’s efforts to provide jobs. Last week, the Statistical Institute of Belize (SIB) stated that unemployment stood at 2.1 percent, down from 3.9 percent earlier in the year. The SIB estimates that over 162,000 people are employed, an increase of more than 1,700 compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, over 3,400 people were unemployed and actively looking for work. However, while these figures appear to be good news heading into Christmas, the data has been criticized by members of the public for being out of touch with street-level realities. Nonetheless, PM Briceno says he believes the effects of the low rate are being felt across sectors and underscored that the SIB follows international guidelines. 

John Briceño, Prime Minister: “Well first of all, I would challenge you to see0 that people don’t feel it. People are feeling it. People are working. Pretty much most people that want to work can find a job. There’s some people that want a special kind of job and they can’t find it so they don’t go to work. So people are feeling it. That’s why there’s this renewed sense of optimism and hope in Belize because people are working. When you look, I’ll use a simple example, the call centers. In November 2020 there were about approximately 2,500 workers. Today, we have 16,000, actually it’s more close to 18,000 right now. This year, they are going to be paying out $134 million in salaries. It’s mostly young people. And guess what? More than 60% of the people working in the car centers are women who had difficulty to find a job. You could speak to most business people and they will tell you that they have difficulty in finding people to work. And I would challenge you, both of you, take the time out, go and ask them how they feel about jobs, they go, they don’t have enough hands, so there is a lot of work. Now, and I’m glad that I listened to the to the to the news section when they were asking her to explain how it’s calculated what she what the director pointed out Diana Castillo pointed out that they are following the classification that is done internationally, it’s not done in Belize but there are different classifications. When you look at again as I remember she said about a third of the people are already retired, so you can’t put them, but they have the whole number so you have to take that out. You have about another third that are under 14, the age of 14, so they’re not working. And then you have some people, like I said, they can’t find the job they want, so they’re not interested, and some just don’t want to work. We can’t force them to count them as part of the employment group of people that want to work. They are not interested. So we have to deal with the people that want to work and want or trying to find a job. And so today, now we’re finding out that it’s 2.1 percent. And the underemployment, which was also a big problem in some instances we had underemployment almost around 20 percent that they only could work a couple hours and every week they don’t get a full week’s work. Now that is also just over 2 percent. It speaks volumes to the success of our government, of getting the economy going in agriculture, in tourism, in the services sector, the BPO’s, you know. And that is why we have one of the fastest growing economies in the world, in this region.”

The SIB conducts the Labor Force Survey twice a year, in April and September, to account for changes due to seasonal employment.