A record ~25,000 Lose Jobs...

[RASC]

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/24_ ... 39503.html

Central Bank Governor: ...I'm concerned about what will happen a few months down the road
By Abby Braithwaite

Story Created: Nov 4, 2010 at 10:48 PM ECT


CLOSE to 25,000 jobs were lost in 2009 to 2010, pushing this country's unemployment rate to the highest it has been in almost three years.
This information is contained in the Central Bank's Monetary Policy Report dated October 2010 released yesterday by the bank at a press conference at its offices in Port of Spain.

The report shows that the economy continues to languish and that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will not achieve the projected growth of two per cent this year.
Based on the Report, the real GDP growth for 2010 will be flat or at best one per cent.

This in large part is due to double-digit inflation and an unemployment rate that could reach between seven and eight per cent by year's end.

According to the report, in the first quarter of 2010, the unemployment rate increased to 6.7 per cent, up from five per cent in the first quarter of 2009.

Job losses were highest in the construction sector which lost more than 13,000 jobs between January and April. From the first quarter of 2009 to the first quarter of 2010, 24,700 people lost their jobs.

Central Bank Governor Ewart Williams said, "The current weakness in economic activity is being accompanied by a sharp increase in unemployment and the surge in headline inflation. These developments have occurred in the context of a policy mix that sought to provide fiscal stimulus and easy monetary conditions."

In the second quarter (of 2010) and this is the latest quarter for which we have data, the estimate is a decline in real GDP of just under one per cent following an increase of 1.9 per cent earlier in the year. This decline reflects slower growth in the energy sector and a continued decline in the non-energy sector. This is the sixth consecutive quarter for which we can talk about a decline in non-energy GDP."

Inflation remains a barrier to economic growth driven by food prices. Headline inflation surged to 16.2 per cent in August and declined to 13.2 per cent in September.

"What is an area of concern with the inflation figures is that the bulk of the rise in inflation has come from domestic sources, the increase in prices of domestic product. You would have seen all around the world the prices of imported goods have been increasing sharply—wheat, rice and edible oil," Williams said.

"Our inflation data are not yet showing the data of this and that is a cause for concern because if we are 13.2 per cent now and the prices of imports have not yet passed through I'm concerned about what will happen a few months down the road."

More economic stagnation is on the horizon in 2011 if global growth recedes and there is no improvement in business and consumer confidence, Williams said. He added that growth in the economy will depend on the re-establishment of consumer confidence and a re-energised private sector that can begin investing and creating job opportunities.

"In the bank's view a clear strategy for returning the fiscal accounts to approximate balance in the next two to three years should be an urgent priority. To do this there may need to be some combination of energy tax reform, review of current expenditures and a re-prioritisation of capital spending and measures to bring down inflation to six to seven per cent by the end of 2011," Williams said.

The bank's calculations indicate that this could be achieved through a reduction in food price inflation from the current level of around 30 per cent to around 12 to 15 per cent combined with some reduction in core inflation. The new policy thrust in the agricultural sector should serve to boost agricultural production and contribute to reducing food price inflation.

MEANWHILE

pm's escort: Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and Attorney General Anand Ramlogan walk the ramp during Wednesday's Bombay Dream fashion show at Hilton Trinidad in St Ann's.

Nah buh we good tho...

[ray_S.T.R.A_man]

Live it up Kamla!!!

[netsket]

and who was in govt during 2009-2010???????

[DuAL StaR]

netsket exactly
manning take 2 terms to bring down trinidad give the unc ah chance nah
real people bashing her about the caricom statement but at lease she looking towards a benefit for us down the road...
rasc what is up with all these political post
do you think if an election were to be held in the morning pnm will will again
did you hear that the pnm cannot keep their members, one of them leave the party because rowley wont have talks with kamla.... i give her damm rite, relax yourself nah, and start the pnm fight next 4 years when elections come around again

[hustla_ambition101]

Let's be real, this is not a result of the PP, I am no fan of them but unemployment jumped during the PNM days. The construction sector had a rise in unemployment since lazy Trinidadians refused to do the work and the Chinese, Jamaicans and Guyanese were employed instead. The grouse that I have with the PP is that they have not announced any sound employment opportunities for young fresh out of university graduates with no experience, the OJT program which took on a lot of these graduates is being scaled down drastically and there is no way in hell the private sector can accommodate all these young people and most of them want experience anyway. Another problem is that instead of looking to improve requirements for certain jobs they seem hell bent on hiring old decrepit retirees who themselves did nothing to improve the services while they were there.

[VexXx Dogg]

RASC I welcome a different perspective eh, but yuh rants getting stale.
According to the dates:
2009-2010: PNM in power
1st quarter of 2010: PNM in power.
Job losses were highest in Jan-April: PNM in power.

Catch my drift? Now take your foot outta your mouth, it's probably funky.

[KURMAman]

RASC quote a article and it backfire on heself yes!...self pwnage!

[- Rovin's car audio -]

oh gosh is diwali : give we ah flipping chance to enjoy d day nah ....

[brickman]

Backfire already this early morning jed?(wipes yampee from eyes)Today starting of good yes!Dance aunty dance!

[SR]

and who was in govt during 2009-2010???????

job loss didnt happen overnight either
as stated most were in the construction sector

wasnt that what all dem chinee contractors were doing courtesy of caulder hart and the pnm

so while the statements are alarming
posting a pic of kamla at a fashion show has absolutly no bearing on this

instead why ont you post a pic of rowley instead as i am sure he is still smiling ear to ear

[Aaron 2NR]

Job losses were highest in the construction sector which lost more than 13,000 jobs between January and April. From the first quarter of 2009 to the first quarter of 2010, 24,700 people lost their jobs.

well bring in more Chinese laborers when there are locals who are skilled and trained and could do the job......

take the land and build houses and import food instead of encouraging people to cultivate food

[TK!]

Nah buh we good tho...

This is clearly a racist statement. Reported.

[toyolink]

Being careful with my choice of words,I am convinced that all reasonable,sensible and informed citizens recognise that our country is and has been in an economic decline for the past 2-3 years and we are now about to enter negative territory by all the indicators.This actually fits the classic models for all students of economics.As i mentioned before we have to accept the following realities before we can arrest the rate of decline;
-Our energy/hydrocarbon derived income for the forseeable future will be depressed
-Our economy at present has no other industry with the maturity to replace income loss being
suffer as a result of depressed energy and derivatives market.
-Our economy has been saddled with major capital investments which now require major constant
recurrent expenditure.
-We now have major projects which have in some instances been started some years aback which
we cannot exit without penalities and in many case we just can't turn our backs on.
-Our real estate market is in real turmoil,with new home owners having large mortgages which
exceed in value the value of their properties as well as prospective new home owners who
have paid deposits on new developments where the value as represented in the agreement
will be subject to major devaluation by the time the project is completed.
-A real inability by the state to continue high levels of relief programs such as cepep and urp
due to lack of ready money.
-Abackup of unresolved wage negotiations where too little money has to confront a backlog of
expectations.
What all these circumstances result in is no magic.In the short term the dislocation impact is severe and in the medium term recovery and adjustment hard.Actually,(as i have always felt) if we take urp and cepep out of the normal classification for numbers of people with jobs things start to become clearer and we need to understand these at best are what used to be refered to as under-employed people.Add to this the fall off in the construction and the energy based service sectors things start to make sense.
The situation today has resulted from the global cycles,our own unwillingness to accept the fact that economies all must go through upswings and slides and more importantly our continuing unwiilingness over the years and gov'ts to develop new economic alternatives to oil and gas.A people who do not learn from history are destined to experience the horrors of the past.
I wonder how many of us have cash savings which can carry us for 6 mths. without an income?

[hustla_ambition101]

Job losses were highest in the construction sector which lost more than 13,000 jobs between January and April. From the first quarter of 2009 to the first quarter of 2010, 24,700 people lost their jobs.

well bring in more Chinese laborers when there are locals who are skilled and trained and could do the job......

take the land and build houses and import food instead of encouraging people to cultivate food

Whose fault is it really with the importation of Chinese and Caribbean immigrant labour? Their work ethic is ten times better than most of the Trinis. How much times do we hear complaints of lazy workmen who use weather, temperature and pay as lame excuses not to work, the only problem I have with the Chinese was the cost overruns. Imagine a guy charging you for a day's work and he reaching 930am, sitting and eating, starting work after 10, leaving at 12 to get lunch, coming back at 2, then leaving for the day at 3pm and dragging the work out so a 1 day job takes an entire week and when the job is complete it not even satisfactory.

[TK!]

apparently some morons (like racisit RASC) feel that the decline was caused in a brief four months.

any sensible person knows better. iz the PNM sheit up the country... much like how the republicans did to the US.

it is history repeating itself. PNM waste and squander money to PLEASE their supporters. But when they see that the $$ running out, they run a weak campaign, drop a few members, lose the election and get another party (eg NAR, UNC, and PP) to come in and clean up the mess.

[eliteauto]

I have a question.....the actions of the past affect the present and the future, now that we are in the present and we face issues now do we continue to blame the past? Is the blame game to help you sleep better than ensuring that the current Gov't address these issues? I understand and agree that a new Gov't needs time to get things right but how much time is needed to develop a policy? An essential economic policy should have been developed BEFORE elections and then fleshed out when you had the full economic picture before you after elections this Gov't has to take blame for it's late State Board appointments (the best ppl statement doesn't cut it), for continuing to not give a true economic picture of the Treasury and for no clear cut development programme
Does anyone even understand what a projected 0% growth means, in plain English it means "ketch a$$" for almost everyone for the next 2 years, thankfully many Trinis have learned to cut spending, but the backlash is that with inflation your savings is worth less

[shady23]

Hoss...........

[toyolink]

Oh! on the point of history -any new gov't required to address and correct a country in severe economic decline which MUST come with austerity measures after a period of unrestrained spenting will not survive to see another term.This is the most difficult political time for any new gov't.Actually by mid-term the errors of the past start to be forgotten and any mention of same then becomes frivolous.Everything is the gov't's fault even our own foolishness.WE IN FOR A REAL MERRY-GO-ROUND.

[Aaron 2NR]

Job losses were highest in the construction sector which lost more than 13,000 jobs between January and April. From the first quarter of 2009 to the first quarter of 2010, 24,700 people lost their jobs.

well bring in more Chinese laborers when there are locals who are skilled and trained and could do the job......

take the land and build houses and import food instead of encouraging people to cultivate food

Whose fault is it really with the importation of Chinese and Caribbean immigrant labour? Their work ethic is ten times better than most of the Trinis. How much times do we hear complaints of lazy workmen who use weather, temperature and pay as lame excuses not to work, the only problem I have with the Chinese was the cost overruns. Imagine a guy charging you for a day's work and he reaching 930am, sitting and eating, starting work after 10, leaving at 12 to get lunch, coming back at 2, then leaving for the day at 3pm and dragging the work out so a 1 day job takes an entire week and when the job is complete it not even satisfactory.

No you are wrong...part of the agreement of the loan given to us by china, was to hire their laborers to do the work.....thats why when rowley started barking about the jobs created by the smelter, everyone wondered what the hell he was talking about...

how ironic, giving a loan that would benefit your citizens.....lend your money, in return you have to hire our workers.....

oh wait kamla's statement was wrong....

[Bezman]

[Bezman]

1 CHOGM = 5% PSA RAISE

just saying

[CS3A_GLX]

everything JUMP during PNM Tenure....CRIME, UNEMPLOYMENT, Police Incapability, Inflation, Caroni closed down so Trinidad catchin dey neneh to export. and now Manning jump out when that fool rowley take over.....

IS WTN!

[nareshseep]

Dont worry folks those unemployed folks will be absorbed into the thriving agriculture sector we currently have due to heavy investment by the previous administration...

[ek4ever]

apparently some morons (like racisit RASC) feel that the decline was caused in a brief four months.

any sensible person knows better. iz the PNM sheit up the country... much like how the republicans did to the US.

it is history repeating itself. PNM waste and squander money to PLEASE their supporters. But when they see that the $$ running out, they run a weak campaign, drop a few members, lose the election and get another party (eg NAR, UNC, and PP) to come in and clean up the mess.

Couldn't have said it better....and the unfortunate thing is that down the road when the country back on track these same ppl will vote PNM again and bring them in just as the economy booming to start this whole cycle over again

[luke skywalker]

everything JUMP during PNM Tenure....CRIME, UNEMPLOYMENT, Police Incapability, Inflation, Caroni closed down so Trinidad catchin dey neneh to export. and now Manning jump out when that Big Lip rowley take over.....IS WTN!

That's racist...................

[nismoid]

this threads's title should have read "A record 25000 Lose jobs under PNM's reign".
See how everytine he post crap like this he proves he's a ka...loses internet connection

[zcarz]

everything JUMP during PNM Tenure....CRIME, UNEMPLOYMENT, Police Incapability, Inflation, Caroni closed down so Trinidad catchin dey neneh to export. and now Manning jump out when that Big Lip rowley take over.....IS WTN!

That's racist...................

maybe, but his lips are admittedly larger than normal

[SMc]

but the real question is where RASC response?

[Country_Bookie]

1 CHOGM = 5% PSA RAISE

just saying

Dem wasn't studying that at the time. All dem was studying was dem getting to see d Queen and Obama. It never occurs to them that a dollar saved today is a dollar you will have for a rainy day. In their minds the gov't have unlimited funds at their disposal.

[Dragsta]

1 WtN..