Every country has to tackle unemployment. It is a structural part of how modern economics operate and low percentages of cyclical unemployment are an indicator of a healthy economy. The crux of the matter is not the existence of unemployment but how best to accurately determine the number of unemployed.
In the age of big data, where personal information is the lifeblood of the internet, a vast array of technologies designed to ascertain crucial metrics exist and can aid the process of counting those out of work.
It is unfortunate, therefore, to see that job chiefs are lacking accurate unemployment data in this country. As The National reported yesterday, Tanmia, the National Human Resource Development and Employment Authority, is in the dark about the exact numbers of unemployed.
The last available statistics, released by the Ministry of Labour in 2013, place unemployment at 15 per cent. Yet, these numbers have varied drastically over the past years, not because of high unemployment figures but for lack of a unified system for gathering the data.
Determining joblessness is not an exact science. In the United States, for example, those that have stopped seeking work altogether often fall through the cracks of published unemployment figures.
If an unemployed person takes on a freelance assignment – no matter how small – that can change their employment status in official numbers.
Given the variance in how unemployment is calculated, clear metrics must be established to accurately describe the number of those out of work.
That’s what makes the admission from Tanmia so worrying. Various parts of Government need accurate figures – it cannot efficiently operate in an environment where exact unemployment figures remain elusive. At the least, a working assumption is needed, so that policies can be benchmarked. It is hard to reach your destination if you don’t know where you’re going.
