The economy needs a “wholesale overhaul” and a plan the One Bermuda Alliance and the Progressive Labour Party can both get behind, according to Shadow Finance Minister David Burt.

The deputy leader of the PLP spoke out after figures showed unemployment had risen over the past two years.

At PLP’s Alaska Hall headquarters yesterday, he said Bermuda was facing a jobs crisis.

The 2014 Labour Force Survey suggested 3,486 people were out of work last year — an increase of 35 per cent from 2,569 in 2013.

But Finance Minister Bob Richards last week urged caution, saying the survey was an “estimate by way of sampling” and did not represent a “statistically significant change”. He pointed to hotel developments, the creation of 400 jobs through a tax initiative to reward Bermudian hires, and a rise in building permits as proof of an impending economic turnaround.

Mr Burt, however, said the numbers “speak for themselves”.

“There were 511 less people working in 2014 than in 2013; a figure that pours cold water on the OBA’s continued talk of recovery,” he said. “The figures show that there were 3,486 people recorded as unemployed, the highest number of people unemployed ever recorded. The figures show that under the OBA, Bermuda is experiencing record unemployment as the unemployment rate of nine per cent is higher than the eight per cent recorded in 2012.

“Wages are down three per cent as costs continue to rise.

“The black unemployment rate is triple that of the white unemployment rate.

“The backwards thinking of the OBA that we can give tax breaks to business and the benefits will trickle down to everyday Bermudians is an idea from the past that has failed, and will continue to take our country in the wrong direction.

“The deeper meaning of these numbers is that our economy needs a wholesale overhaul.”

Bermuda needs a “jobs plan”, Mr Burt said. “Diversifying our economy should be a priority. Rebuilding our economy with a long-term plan for economic growth must be a priority,” he said, and that comprehensive reform was needed to reduce the economic advantages of hiring non-Bermudian workers over Bermudians.

Mr Burt pointed to a “lack of political leadership that believes that the country can work together”.

He said it was important for the OBA to work with the PLP, because companies needed to know economic policies would not be abandoned in the event of a change of government.

“If we want to build a long-term economic plan for the future, then both parties have to come together,” he said.

The PLP’s ideas for improving the economy include a development strategy that would repair and restore the Island’s crumbling infrastructure, and provide relief to construction companies and construction workers, Mr Burt said.

He said the Opposition had also pushed for an education and training programme called JobCorps. He also proposed that the Island’s pension fund be invested in Bermuda businesses and help to create jobs for Bermudians. “We need to invest in jobs in this country,” he said.

Responding to Mr Richards’s comment that the economy was “in free fall” when the OBA took over from the PLP, Mr Burt said the economy was in worse shape today than in 2012.

“We understand the economy is not getting better and not getting stronger,” he said. “We are not going to get jobs without developing the economy and creating new industries.”

Meanwhile, PLP MP Jamahl Simmons highlighted figures showing that black Bermudians make up more than 70 per cent of the 3,000 people out of work.

“These numbers don’t take into account the number of people who have simply given up looking for work or who have moved to other countries,” he said. “While we can rationalise this and make excuses, it is evident that in Bermuda’s jobs crisis, it is the black community that needs serious help in getting back to work.”

Mr Simmons also said there was a “strong lack of diversity. We have to face that fact.”

He rejected a question about whether some employers might be racist, but said: “They may have a preference for hiring people that are a different shade.”