After conducting its first unemployment report in two years, GDOL said unemployment as of March is at an alarming 13.3 percent — an increase of four percentage points since the last report in 2009.
Guam’s population has grown over the past two years since the last unemployment report was conducted, and figures show that although there are more people who have jobs, a lot more people are also looking for work.
“The good news is there are more jobs,” GDOL Director Leah Beth Naholowaa said. “The bad news is there are more people looking for work.”
This means there are close to 10,000, ages 16 and up, who are in the labor force and are looking for work. About 65,000 people are working. Nearly 45,000 people chose not to work, many of whom are teenagers and retirees. Guam’s civilian population 16 years of age and older is nearly 120,000, according to the report.
The highest unemployment rate is among teenagers (38.6 percent). Immigrant aliens (16.4 percent) and adult women (14.8 percent) make up the next largest totals. There is a 10 percent unemployment rate among adult men. Veterans have the lowest unemployment rate at 7.3 percent.
Unemployment has been increasing for the past five years and has nearly doubled since 2006, when the unemployment rate was just 7.4 percent, GDOL reported. The following year it was 8.3 percent. The year after, 2009, it was 9.3 percent. That was the last time a report was taken.
In response to the report, Gov. Eddie B. Calvo said there are long-term and short-term solutions underway and forthcoming to increase career opportunities. He said that based on what he’s seen, the trend in unemployment increases does not come as a surprise at the beginning of his administration.
“As we’ve visited neighborhoods and talked to people, we’ve come across many people who are looking for work,” Calvo said.
“Look at the large numbers of young people out of work. These are people who graduated from high school over the past decade, but the job opportunities aren’t all there. This is why job creation and economic development has been our strategic priority since the campaign.”
