Barbados employment slips
Barbados is country with much to be proud of, this little island nation in the Caribbean was a possession of various colonial powers from the Spanish in the 15th century to the British until 1966.
Barbadians could easily have gone the same route as other former colonies and fallen into debt and corruption traps, but the island hasn’t it, in fact, it has thrived and while it does not have one of the highest per-capita incomes in the world, it has one of the highest ratings on the human development index.
This has much to do with the local leadership that has long been inherent to the island, unlike many other colonies, a fairly autonomy government began to take shape in Barbados as early as the 17th century when the House of Assembly, which is still a part of parliament today, began meeting in 1639.
It is leadership and good governance, not luck that has put the island in the situation it now enjoys, but the current recession, which began in late 2008, has caused an economic slide throughout the world, and the small island nation of Barbados, with a population of just 269,000 people, has been badly affected as well.
Unemployment has increased by 54% from 2008 to 2009, according to the National Insurance Department. Ian Carrington, the director of the department told Barbados news media that in 2009 they had spent $46 million on unemployment assistance, compared to $33 million the year before, while claims for assistance had increased from 13,000 in 2008 to 17,000 in 2009.
“So you would see that there has been a significant increase in the level of claims and in the expenditure on that front,” he told Barbados news media at a press conference.
The Central Bank concurred, announcing that unemployment in 2009 was over 10%, up from 8.1% in 2008, and 6.7% in 2007 (those figures according to the opposition Barbados Labour Party).
It is a concerning trend, then, and represents the struggle of the Barbados, along with every other country in the world, to meet the needs of its people during one of the most difficult economic times since the 1920’s and 30’s. For this island, the current recession is the worst it has ever faced since independence.
It is timely then, that the government in May will send out into the population 700 enumerators to conduct a census for the 2010 Population and Housing Census, which will take until June to be completed.
The report that will be compiled from the study will, according to Minister of Economic Affairs and Empowerment, Innovation, Trade, Industry and Commerce Dr David Estwick, be critically important to the government in acquiring a clearer picture of the economic, demographic and social conditions and challenges facing the island, and give them a better framework though which to allocate spending and plan budgets for the years ahead.
It is largely because of the striking increase in requests for welfare assistance that the census is so important, the recession has changed the socio-economic conditions of the island, and action must be taken quickly to prevent the unfortunate from the falling through the proverbial net.
In 1994, Barbados had an unemployment rate of 24%, it took decades to bring the country where it is now, it would be unfortunate to see all that progress made redundant by a few years of economic instability.