The government airily claims that in areas where the unemployment rate is above the national average, it has put in schemes to create new jobs which are, rapidly, having an effect.
The numbers the government actually gives do not seem to add up: it claims that the priority area for unemployment is the east of the island. It had a scheme last year to create 150,600 new jobs, but provides data only up to September 2002.
The government also, bizarrely, claims that its job creation schemes are not make-work schemes but follow the needs of each area. Given that the country's two main industries, sugar and tourism, are both going through a sticky patch, it is hard to see how either of them actually needs more workers.
The government claims that there are 90,000 workers on courses of one sort or another.
Wages: The government claims that the average wage is 353 pesos (US$13.50, at the free market exchange rate) a month. Even the government reckons that the minimum wage should be 400 pesos a month.
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