Budget Speech 2011 - Government of Grenada

Census taking is an important exercise. The information collected is
critical in planning the socio-economic development of this country for
the next decade.
I urge all citizens to give their full cooperation to the enumerators by
providing truthful answers to all questions asked. As usual, all information
provided will be held in strict confidence and will be used for statistical
purposes only.
The Census will employ at least 360 persons over a period of two to six
months.
Since job creation is a major focus of Government at this time, priority
will be given to recruiting unemployed young persons between the ages
16 to 25.
An allocation of $1.5 million has been provided for this Census. It
should be noted that the Census will be done in collaboration with other
programmes such as the Youth Upliftment Programme.
III. Youth Employment Initiative
Mr. Speaker, the Poverty Assessment Report on Grenada published in
July 2008, revealed that young persons between the ages of 15-24 account
for 42.0 percent of all unemployed persons in Grenada. Young males in
particular, were more likely than any other group, accounting for 47.6%
of all male unemployment.
Mr. Speaker, our Government is very concerned about the high
unemployment situation among our youth. We believe that the current
focus of the Youth Upliftment Programme on education, training and
certification is good and necessary. At the same time, it is far from
adequate to meet the needs of the young school leavers and answer their
cry for an opportunity to earn a decent living and preserve their dignity
and self esteem.
This situation, Mr. Speaker, cannot be allowed to continue. As a
consequence, our Government has made the important decision to launch
a nation-wide Youth Employment Initiative under the Youth Upliftment
2011 Budget Statement Page 65