00:00Professor Hosain notes the situation with serious concern and says it can spell trouble
00:07moving ahead if not addressed.
00:09He says the line minister should examine the figures closely.
00:13The labour force group is increasing and in fact in terms of the time period 1991 to 2024
00:23the data shows that it is at the highest ever.
00:25That is not good.
00:26We need, this would have implications for dependency ratios in the country and therefore
00:32I have been, I think it's a good idea for the Minister of Labour to take a really deep
00:38dive look at what is going on in the labour market in Trinidad and Tobago.
00:43He is warning that if the situation persists it can lead to greater issues and strain in
00:49terms of productivity and foreign exchange earnings.
00:53So I hope policy makers are connecting all these dots behind these scenes and just simply
00:58not talking about it so we don't know, but to me I am seeing an emerging problem or even
01:03bigger problem arising between the changes in the labour market and the consequential
01:09development in the structure of production and by extension then the changes in the foreign
01:14exchange market.
01:16Professor Hosain also examines the impact of immigrants on the unemployment statistics.
01:21When we don't register the Venezuelans they end up working in the informal part of the
01:26non-tradable sector in bars and casinos and in those kind of places and therefore what
01:33they end up doing is skewing the structure of production away from tradable goods which
01:39could produce foreign exchange towards non-tradable goods which is generally intensive in the
01:44use of foreign exchange.
01:46Hosain also notes the $9 billion budget deficit and suggests there may be a connection to
01:53the statistics.
01:54You have already heard the Minister of Finance announce that 2024 we may see a fiscal deficit
02:00of $9 billion.
02:01That's a huge fiscal deficit and therefore labour now has to be looked at closer.
02:09Nicole M Romany, TV6 News.
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