Let us put our youth to work

guyana chronicle editorial

A FEW weeks ago the Caribbean Development Bank released a study which showed that approximately 40 % of young people in Guyana are unemployed. Many economists and commentators have described that statistic as “staggering.” It is even more perplexing, when one considers that this level of unemployment has occurred in an economy that has been hailed as one of the fastest growing in the Anglophone Caribbean. Four decades ago Guyanese economist, Wilfred David, talked about growth without development. That formulation has much validity here. The previous Government was fond of holding up the growth of the economy as its principal achievement. But members of that Government cannot be proud of such high level of unemployment among our young people. And just as it owns the growth rate, it must own the unemployment rate. The puzzling question for the layperson is how is it possible to have a positive growth rate of the economy while there is a high unemployment rate among such a large and pivotal demographic in your country. If wealth is generated in the country but 40 percent of your young population cannot find work, then who is benefiting from this wealth? The economists have their work cut out. But what is certain is that it is difficult to maintain that incongruence over a long period of time. There is a relationship between unemployment and social ills such as poverty, crime and other forms of social delinquency. The signs are clear for us to see. The high level of crime experienced in Guyana cannot be unrelated to unemployment. Similarly, the real poverty rate has to be related to high unemployment among other factors. In a few weeks, the Government is expected to present its budget for this fiscal year. Because of the prorogation of the last Parliament, the budget is later than normal. The Minister of Finance has hinted at a stimulus package. That, on the surface, is good news. But will that package help to stimulate employment, particularly for our young people? Will there, for example, be job creation programmes targeted at especially those young people lower down the social ladder? What about those young people who are graduating from high school and the university but are not able to find jobs? The youth have generally not participated fully in the political process. This is a global trend. But at the last two elections, they voted in larger than usual numbers. There is obviously a larger sense of expectation among them now that the elections are over. Failure by the Government to deal with the issue of unemployment could result in the youth returning to a state of apathy and cynicism which in the long run is not healthy for the democratic process. We, therefore, call on the Minister of Finance to craft a budget in which the problem of youth employment is addressed. This cannot wait; invest in our youthful human resources. There is dire need for both a long and short term strategy. The President has named an advisor on youth empowerment, but there can be no youth empowerment without youth employment. Let us put our young people to work.