Last night, we brought extensive coverage of the virtual press conference which the Statistical Institute of Belize held to discuss its most recent labour force survey, as well as the country's economic performance for the third quarter of 2020.
Well, there are few more important pieces of news coming out of that press conference that you should know about. The first is that the country's imports for the first 10 months of the year were down by 20.1% or 328.5 million dollars. Here's more from the SIB:
Statistician Tiffany Vasquez also discussed the country's exports for the first 10 months, which were down by almost 10%. Here's her analysis of the figures from yesterday:
Belize's Potential Productivity
Turning briefly back to the SIB's Labour Force Survey, we told you how the statisticians have amended their definition of what it means to be unemployed. Part of their definition requires that if you lost your job, you needed to be actively looking for work in order to be considered unemployed.
So, if you were like the many Belizeans who waited to see if you would get your job back after the COVID-induced financial crisis hit the country, you weren't counted as unemployed. That sounds like splitting hairs to us, but the SIB says that that the better classification was that you were completely out of the labour force.
Yesterday, the Acting Director-General of the SIB said that the unemployment numbers aren't as telling as the number of Belizeans who aren't a part of the labour force. There are approximately 300 thousand+ Belizeans who are eligible to work, and according to the SIB, 44% of that figure - almost half(!) Are out of the labour force. That means over a hundred thousand Belizeans aren't even making an attempt to become employed! Here's how the Acting Director-General assessed that point yesterday:
Diana Castillo-Trejo - Acting Director General, SIB "As Mrs. Willoughby said, an unemployment rate of 13% doesn't change the fact that you have a very large number of people who aren't working, for whatever reason. Maybe they have other responsibilities, so, maybe - there are things like the female participation rate that need to be looked at. Why are our females not participating in the labour force? Is it that they don't have support, for example, with childcare and other home responsibilities? Is it the opportunities that are there are not the ones where their skills and qualifications tend to match with them? Why are so many people underemployed? If you look at the statistics on the underemployed, persons who are underemployed work, on average, half the hours a full-time person. They earn half the income of a full-time person. That has serious implications for the incomes and well-being of households, and a lot of people, more now than ever before, are employed as underemployed persons. Informal employment, 40% of our employed persons are informally employed. All of these things are things that give a bigger picture of what is happening with our labour force and employment situations. And so, I would want to caution that it's the easiest thing to pick up on, that indicator, but there is so much more that underlies that, which really gives a better picture of where our country stands in terms of labour and employment, how we use our potential labour force, and how productive we are and can be."
According to the SIB, there are 137,208 Belizeans eligible to work, who are not actively seeking employment.
COMPOL Again Cautions About COVID In Workplace But if you're among the other 168 thousand plus+ Belizeans who are working, and you suspect that you contracted COVID, the Police Commissioner said again today that your employer should not be forcing you to remain on the job. Here's that conversation from today's press conference:
Gas Price Gwen Up!
Regular and Kerosene gas prices are on the rise - and if you need some right now, you'd better buy it before midnight tonight. Regular will increase by 48 cents, from $8.61 to $9.09 per gallon while Kerosene is increasing by an entire dollar, from $4.73 to $5.73 per gallon.
Premium and diesel gas remain the same at $9.49 and $8.11 per gallon respectively.
Coast Guard in Crooked Tree
There was a search and rescue mission in Crooked Tree on Monday.
It was a response to a report of two villagers who were stranded en route to their farm after their 16ft Canoe took on water in Spanish Creek, and eventually capsized.
That's when the Coast Guard, the village chairman, and several residents responded and found the men, whose canoe had sunk, tangled in some shrubs. No injuries were reported and the men were returned safely to the village.
But the Coast Guard isn't done in the village yet, and on Saturday they're inviting you to come along and help them give back to the community. They'll be departing Belize City at 9 am and plan to provide the villagers of Crooked Tree with care packages: (a pantry bag of groceries) and basic medical services.
