00:00Professor Roger Hosein tells the Morning Edition that Trinidad and Tobago's Labour
00:05Force participation rate continues to lag behind many of its Caribbean counterparts.
00:12Warning that unless the trend is reversed, it will continue to undermine productivity
00:17and economic growth.
00:19The number of people with jobs since 2014 is now almost 70,000 less.
00:28So, we have a situation going on where the labour supply is in contraction with a low labour
00:36force participation rate, and labour demand is in contraction with a low labour force demand.
00:44And unless we target opportunities that create long-term sustainable development, we are going
00:52to remain with this abysmal labour market situation with all kinds of problems for the country.
00:58He notes that the recent assessments by local and international institutions, including
01:04the International Monetary Fund, Standard & Poor's and other independent economic reviews, all
01:11underscore the urgent need for TNT to generate more foreign exchange and strengthen economic resilience.
01:18Unless you actually go and put in the mechanical work to get the ball formally in the back
01:25of the net, you lose.
01:26And over all the chatter about foreign exchange generation, you are still seeing the difference
01:34between reserves and external debt.
01:36It was minus 100 million in 2025.
01:39By 2030, it is forecasted to be minus 3.7 billion.
01:44So, from minus 100 million to 37 times worse, it is forecasted to get.
01:50That is a nightmare.
01:51That is a nightmare.
01:52Describing the country's declining growth performance as alarming, Professor Hosein says, what is now
01:58needed is a clearly articulated economic strategy.
02:02If you make these grandiose statements about revitalisation and X billion going to be spent on this and that, and
02:10then you stop
02:11communicating with us, we are going to think, in the absence of other data and information, that it has fallen
02:16by the way,
02:17that the economy has crashed and that very little is going on.
02:21Nicole M. Romany, TV6 News.
02:24I am not using that as many 피abytes, by means it has carried away in the past but also to
02:25be able to get it.
02:25You are also followed by aни time back.
02:26You are also holding.
02:27I have a tendency of bursting and going up in the past.
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