Unemployment rate is 33.5%

There has been much speculation about the rate of unemployment in Grenada and a recent labour force survey has provided the answers.

Preliminary data of a Labour Force Survey conducted in September has revealed that Grenada’s unemployment rate is 33.5 per cent. This was announced by Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell, who is also Finance Minister, when he presented the 2014 Budget last week Tuesday.

He said that based on the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) definition of unemployment, which is persons who are not working, want work, actively seeking work and available for work, the rate of unemployment in Grenada now stands at 33.5 per cent. Among our youth (ages 15-24), it is 55.6 per cent.

“The Survey’s findings validate our assertion, in Opposition, that the rate of unemployment was at least 40 per cent. Let us examine this issue a little further. The current labour force in Grenada is just under 60 000. Remember, the labour force is the employed and the unemployed. How do you get the unemployment rate? You divide the unemployed by the labour force and multiply by 100,” he said.

A Labour Force Survey is a Household Survey. The data was collected through face-to-face interviews with members or a member of a sampled household.

The survey was a project of the St. Lucia-based Organisation of the Eastern Caribbean States and it was conducted in the nine-member sub-regional grouping with funds provided by the European Development Fund. (LS)