rising unemployment

Fiji grapples with rising unemployment

Fiji is trying to cope with a situation of increasing unemployment which could well be more massive than the government’s standard statistical estimate.

The bureau of statistics sets the unemployment rate at 9% to 10%, a matter of 15 000 to 17 000 people out of work in a labour force of an estimated 180 000.

But an independent econ omic observer said unemploy ment could be running at 15% to 20% if they took into ac count all the people who would like a job if they could get it, but who had become discouraged and given up ac tively seeking work.

The standard definition of an unemployed person which is accepted by the bureau of statistics is someone who is ac tively seeking work.

But many young people are discouraged job-seekers who stay at home as domestic help, or go back to the village and a subsistence living. These are therefore uncounted.

A total of 14 460 young people left school last year.

One thousand will go on to higher education and training, and 4 420 will find jobs through replacing people in the labour force who have retired, died or emigrated.

There is no number tor those who will find new jobs, because there are virtually no new jobs being created.

While the lay-off of 770 men at Vatukoula goldmine precipitated a strike and a government takeover, the government itself has made 1 300 men in the public works department redundant, and has not expanded the civil ser vice at all for the last two years.

Some large commercial companies, including the Car penter group, have laid off or are in the process of laying off dozens of workers, and Suva City Council has been pursu ing a policy of getting rid of its employees and having its city services performed on con tract.

There has not yet been any specific planning or action on the unemployment problem other than the government effort to re-employ some of the PWD workers and absorb some of the miners into the pine commission schemes.

But the tripartite forum, Fiji’s meeting ground for government, management and unions, has appointed a new sub-committee to set a new wage guideline for those lucky enough to be in employment this year.