00:00Despite reports of non-renewal of contracts and business closures this past year, the unemployment rate as of December 2025
00:09was 4.4 percent, according to the Central Statistical Office, down from 4.9 percent in the first quarter of
00:17the year.
00:18This even after thousands of CPEP, URP and national reforestation workers have lost their jobs.
00:25Well, it's held steady. I think the Prime Minister made it clear in the one-year celebration that we have,
00:35in fact, by employment through the various ministries, close to 15,000 jobs would have been added just from the
00:42government employment.
00:43And then you have other persons in the private sector would have been employing persons. So that, yes, it is
00:52holding steady because we are working towards it.
00:54The Labour Minister was speaking at a pilot entrepreneurial training program for the blind and visually impaired, with funding available
01:02through NEDCO.
01:04Few persons will give them the opportunity. We have real trained, skilled persons. I mean, one of the examples.
01:13We just heard about the president of the Blind Welfare Association, Dina Ryan Raghu, as a business person. We have
01:21Senator Alicia Pauline Lalit Etienne, blazing trails in the parliament of Trinidad and Tobago.
01:30It means that they are equal to any one of us. It's just about giving them the opportunity. So this
01:37is about giving them the opportunity to participate.
01:40The Blind Welfare Association is welcoming the initiative, as it reports that there is an estimated 50,000 to 60
01:48,000 blind and visually impaired people in Trinidad and Tobago, the vast majority of whom are unemployed.
01:55We would be advocating strongly for the government itself to lead by example in terms of at least if each
02:03ministry can employ at least one person who is visually impaired.
02:09I think that will go a long way in not only employment, but signaling to the wider community, to the
02:16private sector, etc., that we have persons who are capable, who are qualified and can function in a normal working
02:23environment.
02:23Raghu says work-from-home arrangements, telephone operators, massage therapists and jobs in IT are good options for the blind
02:33and visually impaired.
02:34However, he acknowledges that some functions would require accommodations.
02:39In our UN Convention on the Charter for Rights of Persons with Disabilities, there is this concept of reasonable accommodation
02:49where states, private and public sector agencies are required within reason.
02:56For example, if you have to employ a person who is disabled and you may have to organize the speech
03:02software, that is something reasonable.
03:05It is not going out of the ordinary or any exorbitant expenditures, etc., etc., and that is well established in
03:15the UN Convention.
03:17So we would like to bring perhaps even the state itself to remind them of the UN Convention on private
03:24organizations, businesses, the private sector and so on, that it can happen if we really are serious about it.
03:31We can sit down and discuss and work it out, but it is possible.
03:34Renasa Cutting, TB6 News.
03:37Renasa Cutting, TB6 News.
Comments