May 30, 2001 – Puzzling unemployment statistics surfaced Tuesday at a meeting of the Senate Labor and Veterans Affairs Committee.
According to figures carried in The Virgin Islands Daily News, the territory's unemployment rate dropped from 7 percent in 1999 to 6.9 percent in 2000, a relatively minuscule drop.
The Avis, meanwhile, reported that the territory's unemployment rate had steadily risen to about 7 percent. The paper placed the national jobless rate at about 4.6 percent, citing a U.S. Census Bureau web site.
According to figures in the Daily News, the unemployment rate on St. Croix has remained steadily higher than that in the St. Thomas-St. John district, reaching a high of 8.3 percent in 1999 and dropping to 8 percent in 2000.
Both newspapers said comparisons between local and national jobless rates do not give an accurate picture, because the V.I. Labor Department draws its statistics from people who have registered with the department, while the national figures come from the census.
The committee's day-long meeting on St. Thomas was one of clashes of other sorts as well. Sen. Norma Pickard-Samuel, the panel's chair, tossed Attorney General Iver Stridiron out of the hearing when he refused to provide details of a criminal investigation under way in the Labor Department's Insurance Division. [See separate Source story, "Warring words lead to action — and reaction."]
Pickard-Samuel also had strong words for Cecil Benjamin, acting Labor commissioner, whose nomination has been sent by the Rules Committee to the full Senate with an unfavorable recommendation. She accused some of Benjamin's employees of "intimidation," saying they had tried to block other Labor employees from providing her committee with information. Benjamin denied knowing of any such action.
Pickard-Samuel suggested Benjamin form a task force to come up with a new building to house his department in on St. Thomas. She said the current structure, located behind the Emile Griffith Ballpark, is physically unsafe, and she spent several minutes determining how often carpeting in a certain area is cleaned.
Wanda L.C. Morris, assistant director of the Division of Workers Compensation, gave an update on the unit's status. The division came under fire in the 23rd Legislature when Sen. Roosevelt David as chair of the Labor and Veterans Affairs Committee was unable to obtain information from then-commissioner Sonia Jacobs-Dow. The division was seriously behind in paying claims at the time.
Morris said although the division has been "plagued with a severe staff shortage … claims have continued to be processed within 30 to 45 days." She said the division is upgrading personnel and interviewing for a number of positions.
