T&T’s welfare-state spending not sustainable, economist says

Ahead of the up­com­ing na­tion­al bud­get pre­sen­ta­tion, T&T faces a com­plex con­ver­gence of labour mar­ket con­trac­tion and fis­cal re­align­ment.

The coun­try’s labour mar­ket reg­is­tered sig­nif­i­cant con­trac­tion in the first quar­ter of 2026, as to­tal na­tion­al un­em­ploy­ment rose by 6,200 in­di­vid­u­als to reach 31,900, up from 25,700 record­ed in the fourth quar­ter of 2025, ac­cord­ing to da­ta from the Cen­tral Sta­tis­ti­cal Of­fice (CSO).

Over the same pe­ri­od, the num­ber of peo­ple with­out jobs and ac­tive­ly seek­ing work in­creased by 5,800, ris­ing from 21,300 in 2025Q4 to 27,100 in 2026Q1.