Tack­le the re­cent ter­mi­na­tions of thou­sands of work­ers in the up­com­ing bud­get or face the con­se­quences that lie ahead. That’s the warn­ing from de­vel­op­ment econ­o­mist Dr Ralph Hen­ry to the Gov­ern­ment ahead of Bud­get 2026.

Hen­ry said the fir­ings can­not and should not be ig­nored in this fis­cal pack­age.

“The Gov­ern­ment has hard choic­es to make. I don’t think they can avoid at­tempt­ing to do some­thing. We have to take the bull by its horns. The prob­lem is that be­cause of the struc­ture of the econ­o­my, there is a sub­stan­tial num­ber of peo­ple who can’t find em­ploy­ment, and the Gov­ern­ment has to step in and try to have some­thing in place to pro­vide sus­te­nance for these peo­ple.”