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Employment dipped in 2012 & 2013 in VI; Were we misled?
Unemployment up in the Virgin Islands in 2012 & 2013
According to the Minimum Wage Advisory Committee Report 2015, which was released to the public on November 2, 2015 by Deputy Premier and Labour Minister Dr The Honourable Kedrick D. Pickering (R7), the Premier’s statement was in direct contradiction with the facts.
The report on page 14 stated: “More than perhaps any other economic indicator, performance of the labour market signals the level of economic development and in turn the status of the standard of living for the majority of residents in a society.”
The Minimum Wage Report went on to say, “In 2012 and 2013, the number of employed persons decreased such that the number of employed persons at the end of 2013 was approximately 18,247.”
In 2011, the election year, the employment rate was 18,622, according to the statistics in the report. In 2012 it dipped to 18,356 while Premier Smith was saying the economic was robust.
Inflation in the VI
According to the report, the territory’s inflation rate has remained stable over the last few years due in part to low rates in the United States of America, the VI’s main supplier of goods. The Minimum Wage Advisory Committee Report said that in 2013 the inflation rate was 1.6%, down from 2.5% and 2.1% in 2011 and 2012 respectively.
The highest price increases, according to the Report for 2013, were recorded in the consumer goods and services categories of communications, food, beverage and tobacco, and recreation.
However, the Minimum Wage Advisory Committee stated that “the main risk, however, to maintaining a low, stable rate of inflation, is fluctuation in global oil prices.”
The NDP administration has accepted the $6.00 per hour increase recommended in the Minimum Wage Advisory Committee Report.
However, to date no amendment to the Labour Code or no regulations have been forthcoming to give effect to the increase.
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18 Responses to “Employment dipped in 2012 & 2013 in VI; Were we misled?”
You gloom and doomers kill me. Name another country in the Region doing as good as the BVI. Nobody said things are perfect but we need to be thankful things are not worst! The BVI is a very small Territory that is overly dependent and affected by anything that happens in the wider world. Considering all the sh*t over the years with the unstable world economy etc, we should be glad that for the most part people still have fairly decent jobs and Government hasn't had to send home thousands.
other nations went along with it. Quite a few billion dollars left here when the owners put it somewhere else.