{"id":6078,"date":"2026-10-20T16:02:05","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T20:02:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/?p=6078"},"modified":"2026-10-20T16:02:05","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T20:02:05","slug":"colm-imbert-questions-cso-unemployment-figures-after-claiming-22-000-public-programme-jobs-were-lost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/?p=6078","title":{"rendered":"Colm Imbert Questions CSO Unemployment Figures After Claiming 22,000 Public Programme Jobs Were Lost"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"tg-source-video\" style=\"margin:1.25rem 0;\"><video controls preload=\"metadata\" style=\"max-width:100%;height:auto;\" src=\"https:\/\/news.tringlobe.com\/auto-article\/static\/output\/podcast-source-clip-99fa38fa3c96629bdaa1013e9cb29b4ae6531ede377fce754ef6a42851e91683.mp4\"><\/video><\/div>\n<p>Former Finance Minister Colm Imbert has questioned the reliability of Trinidad and Tobago&#8217;s unemployment statistics, arguing that reported job losses across three public employment programmes should have produced a noticeable increase in unemployment.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at an opposition press conference, Imbert challenged the Finance Minister&#8217;s reported claim that approximately 5,000 more people were employed than previously.<\/p>\n<p>He argued that the comparison relied on outdated Central Statistical Office information.<\/p>\n<p>Imbert estimated that the Community-Based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme previously employed approximately 11,000 people at a given time, the Unemployment Relief Programme 7,000 and the reforestation programme 4,000.<\/p>\n<p>Together, he said, those programmes accounted for approximately 22,000 jobs.<\/p>\n<p>He claimed that workers were retrenched around the middle of 2025 and questioned why the unemployment rate had not risen correspondingly.<\/p>\n<p>Imbert further suggested that replacement employment initiatives had provided fewer than 2,000 jobs at any one time.<\/p>\n<p>He called for scrutiny of how employment data were being collected and presented.<\/p>\n<p>However, his calculations did not establish that all 22,000 workers remained unemployed, and no independent assessment of subsequent employment or labour-force participation was presented.<\/p>\n<p>The former minister&#8217;s central concern was whether official statistics adequately reflected changes in public programme employment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Colm Imbert challenges official unemployment figures after alleging thousands lost jobs across three programmes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6077,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trinidad-and-tobago"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}