Former Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase has claimed that there is a high level of unemployment in the country compared to when he was in government in 2006.
Qarase made this statement in the itaukei language while speaking at the Social Democratic Liberal Party campaign meeting in Caubati last night.
He highlighted that this year 30,000 people registered under the Ministry of Labour looking for employment opportunities which includes 12,000 university graduates.
Qarase also claimed that in 2006 the number of people living below the poverty line was 32% compared to 50% who are currently living below the poverty line.
About 100 people were present at the SODELPA campaign meeting in Caubati last night.
Meanwhile, Minister for Social Welfare Women and Poverty Alleviation Dr Jiko Luveni has disputed the poverty statistics brought up by Qarase.
She said they cannot reveal the current percentage of people living below the poverty line but she stressed that Qarase’s statement is not true.
Minister for Labour and Employment Jone Usamate has also disputed Qarase’s comments relating to unemployment.
In a recent statement, Usamate had said that Fiji’s five years of positive economic growth has led to a reduction in the country’s unemployment rate with more people entering the job market.
He said the figures collected during the 2010-2011 survey showed that the unemployment rate has come down to 6.9 percent from the previous 8.6 percent.
Usamate said the Reserve Bank of Fiji has registered more vacancy advertisements and the Fiji National Provident Fund said there have been more new members registering than those leaving.
The Labour Minister confirmed that 33,000 people have registered under the National Employment Centre.
Furthermore, Usamate said the Ministry had traced 12,000 of those registered and successfully contacted 3,213 whereby it found that 70 percent of these had either found employment, started their own business, were doing an attachment somewhere or had gone back for further studies.
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