Update: 7:26 am – While giving her response on the national budget in parliament yesterday, Ro Teimumu says the economy which must serve the nation, does not have the capacity to provide jobs for school leavers and graduates despite the claimed 3 percent growth in the last three years.
Ro Teimumu says it is estimated that 33.4 percent or 249,055 economically active people are not absorbed in the labour force and are considered under-employed or unemployed.
She further says in 2015, of the total 600, 000 working population only sixty-four percent were in the labour force and the remaining thirty-five percent are not accounted for.
”Salaries have been stagnant for the last seven years. The devaluation of the dollar and inflation has further affected the struggling families. The last increase in civil service was just before the 2014 election and guess what the next increase in civil service salary is just before the 2018 election. This is amazing.”
Ro Teimumu says this is clearly a vote buying exercise.
Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama had earlier said that every budget is an election budget.
-FBC
