One year af­ter vot­ers in key mar­gin­al con­stituen­cies helped bring the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) in­to of­fice, a re­turn to those com­mu­ni­ties re­veals a per­sis­tent and press­ing con­cern: un­em­ploy­ment.

Across San Fer­nan­do West, Tu­na­puna, and To­co/San­gre Grande, res­i­dents say that while they vot­ed for change in hopes of eco­nom­ic re­lief, un­em­ploy­ment and lim­it­ed op­por­tu­ni­ties con­tin­ue to de­fine their dai­ly re­al­i­ty.

From small busi­ness own­ers to young job seek­ers, the re­frain is con­sis­tent: work is hard to find, in­come is un­cer­tain, and the im­prove­ments many ex­pect­ed have yet to ma­te­ri­alise.