Jobs held by Bermudians are drip, drip, dripping away

During the recent drought, Bermudians were very careful about not wasting water. Faucets that were dripping water were tightened until they stopped losing precious water. Pity that us lot do not have the same concern about Bermudian people dripping out of Bermuda’s national economy and national workforce and local community.

Examining the information in the Employment Briefs put out by the Department of Statistics,  I see that the absolute number of Bermudians counted in the workforce is falling.

The Department of Statistics shows that over the past ten years, the number of Bermudians counted in Bermuda’s national workforce runs like this:

2000:  28,881 jobs

2001:  27,952 (929 fewer)

2002:  27,716 (236 fewer)

2003: 27,346 (430 fewer)

2004:  27,443 (97 more and against the trend)

2005:  27,313 (130 fewer)

2006:  27,356 (43 more and against the trend)

2007:  27,272 (84 fewer)

2008:  27,180 (92 fewer)

2009:  26,789 (391 fewer)

Between 2000 and 2009, like water dripping from a leaky faucet, Bermudians were dripping away from Bermuda and out of Bermuda’s workforce and community. During the same time, something potentially explosive was happening.

By 2009, with 1,192 fewer Bermudians identified as working in Bermuda, there was a compensating influx of non-Bermudians. 

There were 9,136 non-Bermudians identified as working in Bermuda in 2000. By 2009, there were 12,731 non-Bermudians identified as working here.

So for every one Bermudian who dripped out, three non-Bermudians poured in. First to replace (1,192), and then augment (1,503), for a total of 3,595 fresh new non-Bermudians.

This is a critical and still publicly unrecognized and unacknowledged emigration switch. Bermudians out. Non-Bermudians in.

Between 2000 and 2009, the total number of jobs filled in all of Bermuda grew from 38,017 jobs (in 2000) to 39,520 jobs (in 2009). 

This 1,503 job overall national job and economic growth was fuelled entirely by non-Bermudians. 

Without the compensating influx of non-Bermudians, this economic growth would not and could not have happened. That’s crazy!

 But this craziness shows and confirms what I’ve always said and frequently written: “Bermuda has a complex, sophisticated, and delicately balanced economy”.

Bermuda also has a unique economy that does not follow patterns seen in other economies and jurisdictions. When a national population undergoes demographic changes of the style and magnitude that I have just described, where an indigenous group suffers large relative displacement by a foreign group, social pressures do build.

Social tensions

In turn, these social pressures can, and do, create new national emotions that can, and do, show themselves in new and heightened social tensions.

It is generally acknowledged that there has been a rise in social tensions in Bermuda. That rise is a consequence of the combining of many factors.

What next? The first requirement is that the change that has actually occurred — as evidenced and described by the work of the Department of Statistics — must be recognized.

This is the biggest and most pressing problem. I first spoke and wrote of it over two years ago. Since then, broad political policies and politically supported racial rhetoric has wandered and gushed all over the place. 

 Since then, but especially since May 2009, eleven murders, more than 40 people wounded, and hundreds of gunshots, shows that Bermuda is suffering from a higher level of new and different social friction.

As has already happened in Arizona, a likely consequence of this identified and absolute demographic shift will be a rise in xenophobia.  

Bermudians will show as disagreeable and unhappy about the large relative increase in ‘foreigners’. I reckon that an undercurrent of xenophobia already pervades some of our political policy-making. It certainly comes through the ‘Talk Show’ airwaves.

Bermuda is a complex, sophisticated, and delicately balanced economy that depends on maintaining a high level of social stability.

Bermuda’s unique demographic switch, accompanied by a subtle but certain rise in xenophobia, threatens the social stability that is the bedrock of Bermuda’s economy.

But do you think that Bermuda’s policymakers — even the best of them — realize or show that they realize that? Seems not.

Right now they’re busily fussing over a Changing of the Guard Commander, even as the smoke from the burning Guardhouse builds up and the guns keep getting closer.

Is there a leader or potential leader out there with the combination of intelligence and common sense to see and understand what the Government’s Department of Statistics is reporting; what it means; and what it could, predictably, lead to?