Baptiste: National recruitment drive could inject up to $3b into economy

Minister of Labour, Small and Micro Enterprise Development Leroy Baptiste during the budget debate in the Senate, Red House, Port of Spain, on April 27. - Photo courtesy TT Parliament

MINISTER of Labour, Small and Micro Enterprise Development Leroy Baptiste said the National Recruitment Drive launched over a week ago has the potential to inject up to $3 billion into the economy.

Baptiste's assertion came during his presentation in the Senate's budget debate on October 27 as he said the initiative would promote economic stability, restore lost employment, stimulate consumption, boost GDP and reduce poverty.

Baptiste said, besides giving employment to fill the 20,000 vacant positions in the public sector, there is a phenomenon where more people being employed leads to more jobs being created.

"Even the most conservative multiplier effect, if you were to use a 1.5 but some studies would let you know that if it's a tradeable job you could export as much as 2.5 indirect jobs could be created from one new job and greater. But if you use a modest 1.5, you talking about the modest possibility of 20,000 jobs indirectly creating 30,000 jobs and then you have a total of 50,000 jobs. Even if you have a lower salary, mean salary for the 30,000 jobs (of) maybe $5,000 or $4,500...you talking about the possibility of adding $1.8 billion again in circulation in this economy."

He added: "I'm saying this because I want the business community know they have to support this budget and this initiative because it seeks to inject into this economy as much as over $3 billion by the national recruitment drive."

The minister said this employment growth would also result in increased contributions to the national insurance framework.

The government launched the first phase of the employment drive on October 19 to fill public sector vacancies. The second phase is expected to incorporate vacancies in the private sector. Further details have not yet been released.

Baptiste blamed the former PNM for causing what he believed was the decay of the workforce. He said figures from the Central Statistical Office showed between 2010 and 2105, under the then UNC-led People's Partnership administration, 41,200 people were added to the employed pool with a 61.5 per cent labour force participation rate. However, he said figures from the end of the first quarter in 2025 showed that under the PNM, 64,400 fewer people were employed and the labour force participation rate declined to 54.3 per cent.

He said 160,700 people were employed in the public sector under the People's Partnership, but had dropped to 129,900 by 2025 under the previous administration. He said youth employment stood at 79,600 in 2015 but declined to 51,700 in 2025.

First up to contribute to the debate in the Upper House was Vishnu Dhanpaul, who criticised the budget's accounting, especially when it came to the government's proposed ten per cent wage increase for the public service. Baptiste, who is a former Public Service Association (PSA) president, was the second speaker after Dhanpaul but did not mention the salary increase.

Presenting the budget on October 13, Minister of Finance Davendranath Tancoo said the Prime Minister instructed the Chief Personnel Officer to submit a revised offer of ten per cent to the PSA.