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@guardian.co.tt

The ax­ing of 400 Un­em­ploy­ment Re­lief Pro­gramme (URP) work­ers has raised fears of a wider eco­nom­ic and so­cial fall­out, with econ­o­mists warn­ing that the move could re­ver­ber­ate far be­yond the pay pack­ets of those who lost their jobs.

Fol­low­ing cuts to the Com­mu­ni­ty-Based En­vi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion and En­hance­ment Pro­gramme (CEPEP) and re­for­esta­tion jobs that have sup­port­ed thou­sands of low-in­come house­holds, econ­o­mists warn the lay­offs could weak­en con­sumer de­mand, dri­ve in­for­mal hus­tling, and deep­en so­cial and eco­nom­ic fragili­ty in a coun­try still strug­gling to re­duce its de­pen­dence on oil and gas.