A new Guyana Labour Force Survey has calculated that the unemployment rate stood at 12% in the third quarter of last year, with disproportionately high numbers of both women and youth aged 15 to 24.
The survey, said to be the first of its kind in Guyana in recent years, found that the total number of unemployed persons for the period was 37,119, which comprised 15.3% of eligible females, as opposed to 9.9% of eligible males, as well as 21.6% of youth aged 15 to 24 and 28% of young women.
It noted that among the total resident population aged 15 and above, numbering 550,831 persons, there was a labour force participation rate of 56%, roughly equal to the corresponding 2012 figure of 55.7%. The total employed population was given as 271,068, with 166,873 or 62% being males and 104,195 or 38% being females, while 188,774 of the workers were based in urban areas and 82,294 in rural areas. (The labour force participation rate is the labour force—defined as the sum of persons in employment plus persons in unemployment—as a percentage of the working-age population.)
