According to 2014 data from the Central Statistical Office (CSO), the unemployment rate in Tobago is currently four per cent. However, Chief Secretary in the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Orville London said he is concerned about the quality and sustainability of jobs on the island.
London said Tobago’s unemployment rate is better than for Trinidad and other Caricom territories. In the case of Barbados, he said, the unemployment rate over the last year or so was close to 11 per cent, while for St Lucia the figure was 23 per cent. Speaking at a Tobago Economic and Business Outlook Conference 2015 at the Magdalena Grand Beach Resort, he said: “The most recent labour force data available from the CSO for Tobago suggests that the state sector employs about 60 per cent of the labour force in Tobago and the private sector employs about 40 per cent.
The available economic statistics for the island suggests that we have significant work to do in our continuing quest to diversify and transform the island’s economy. Therefore, the diversification of the island’s economy remains one of our priority development objectives as clearly articulated in our Comprehensive Economic Development Plan for Tobago. Critical to our strategy of diversification of the island’s economy and the development of the private sector on the island, is the need to create the enabling environment to ensure greater creativity and innovation in our society.”
London said in a global and regional economic environment that is dynamic and plagued with uncertainties, businesses in Tobago could only develop and maintain competitive advantages in the various industries in which they operate if they engaged in continuous innovation. He underscored the need for businesses to continuously strive to reinvent themselves and find new ways of doing the things they now did, as well as find new things to do.
“We must not believe that we are too small to engage in meaningful innovation. We must always strive to think big. Even as we act local, we cannot and should not lose sight of the global picture. In periods of uncertainty, people need to be even more innovative and creative; people need to be more productive and people need to embrace and exploit all the available entrepreneurial opportunities that exist in the economic spaces in which they operate,” he said.
London added: “We must as Tobagonians, as citizens of T&T, recognise and embrace these qualities. We must adapt if we are to treat effectively with all the emerging economic challenges. It is important that we do so against the backdrop of Tobago’s current economic realities, both positive and negative. “But I am suggesting that as responsible decision makers, we’ve got to look beyond the number and therefore, we need to examine the quality and sustainability of those jobs.”