Job losses blamed on crime

The worsening law and order situation in many parts of the country is a result of job losses nationwide in the past four years, says Opposition Leader Patrick Pruaitch.
Pruaitch said Bank of Papua New Guinea’s (BPNG) December quarterly report confirmed the news that more than one in 10 people employed in the formal sector lost their job last year in the National Capital District.
He added that this was in spite of the hundreds of millions of kina spent by the National and NCD governments on roads and building projects in Port Moresby.
“BPNG said 11.1 per cent of workers in NCD lost their jobs last year, while 3.9 per cent lost jobs nationwide. If the minerals sector was excluded, 4.8 per cent of jobs, or about one in 20 of all non-mining sector jobs, were lost throughout the country,” Pruaitch said.
“This is a social disaster in the making.”
Pruaitch noted that Central Bank data showed that employment levels have fallen for four consecutive years. (Employment rose by 0.3 per cent in 2016, after falls of 3.7 per cent in 2015 and 3.4 per cent in 2014)
“One of PNG’s highly regarded companies, Steamships, which celebrates its 100th anniversary in PNG this year, was forced to lay off stevedoring workers in Port Moresby and Lae after the national Government brought in an overseas port operator without consulting local business,” he said.
“The cost of doing business has risen considerably because of foreign exchange shortages, increases in fuel costs and import duties with the government’s latest 90:10 cash grab from government bodies threatening major disruptions in the mining, forestry and fisheries sectors.” Many companies also curtailed their operations because of outstanding unpaid national Government debts.
Prime Minister Peter O’Neill believes the Government can only create jobs by promoting investments in the private sector.
In an earlier interview, based on Government plans to address unemployment issues in the country, O’Neill said: “We can only create jobs by promoting the private sector, that’s what we are doing, encouraging more investment in the country.”