What Stuart Hayward and Dr Wolfgang Sterrer so aptly termed “Bermuda’s delicate balance” in the early 1980s has more than once grown wobbly in subsequent decades.

In their book of that title the authors made the point it wasn’t just the Island’s ecology which could quite easily reach the tipping point if safeguards were not put into place and rigorously enforced.

“Bermuda is truly a microcosm of the entire planet, finite in size, limited in resources and containing a complex mixture of races, nationalities and lifestyles,” said Mr. Hayward and Dr. Sterrer.

Consequently, Bermuda’s culture, social structure and quality of life could all be destabilised — or overwhelmed — if the likely long-term consequences of major economic restructuring strategies or shifts in economic emphasis were not properly assessed and factored into the decision-making processes.

Of course, when the accelerated and extended economic growth spurt which saw Bermuda rapidly transformed from a sleepy, increasingly passé resort destination into an international re/insurance and financial centre got under way all such warnings about ensuring the sustainability of our development went ignored. The profit motive largely trumped even the most sensible checks and balances.

The population surged along with the economy, which boasted too few Bermudians to fill far too many new jobs.

Some of the positions in the newly thriving financial services sector were so hyper-specialised only a relative handful of individuals in the entire world were qualified to hold them. More were created in labour-intensive satellite industries, most notably construction: so many major building projects were under way simultaneously there was a constant need to throw an ever increasing number of bodies at them.

An overheated economy and an increasingly overburdened infrastructure confronted an ill-prepared Bermuda with the problems of plenty. So much development was taking place so fast our delicate balance was thrown entirely off kilter,

But then boom unexpectedly turned to bust.

And the Island found itself equally unready to cope with the problems of want, chief among them an unemployment rate which remains stubbornly high at almost 10 per cent.

An outflow of guest workers did not, as some of our less sophisticated pundits had anticipated, open up a new range of positions for Bermudians.

Many of the jobs created during the boom years — and sometimes entire enterprises — ceased to exist as the economy contracted with the same whiplash-inducing speed it had grown. Employment opportunities vanished in both the relatively untaxed offshore economy and a local sector which had been growing increasingly uncompetitive even before the slump’s onset.

The plight of the unemployed and underemployed remains a deeply troubling one. While the economy is slowly gaining momentum after seven years of decline, the number of people out of work for more than six months, the so-called long-term unemployed, remains at historically high levels in Bermuda.

And this unhappy situation is now compromising our delicate socio-economic balance in ways Bermuda has not experienced since the immediate post-First World War period when the Island’s agricultural industry finally collapsed and the advent of modern resort tourism was still almost a decade away.

There have been no easy fixes. The One Bermuda Alliance Government, elected to office two years ago on a job-creation platform, is just now putting the final pieces in place for what amounts to a major economic revitalisation programme.

A new airport will be the centrepiece of a Government-backed spending initiative which will see tens of millions of dollars invested in Bermuda’s infrastructure and amenities in the hope such upgrades will draw private capital to the Island as it prepares to host the 2017 America’s Cup.

There’s considerable reason for optimism on this front. New hotel projects, the upgrade of existing hospitality properties and the construction of an America’s Cup Village at Dockyard have all already been announced. Further hospitality-related projects which will create jobs and incomes for Bermudians are likely to be unveiled in the coming months.

The Premier has made clear that coordinating activities in ways which put the maximum number of unemployed Bermudians back to work in the minimum amount of time is a major policy objective for Government. Ensuring the process is carried out in an orderly and efficient manner which does not overstimulate the economy too quickly and set another dizzying boom-and-bust cycle into motion is another priority.

This is welcome news. After 15 years of destabilisation caused first by too much economic activity and then far too little, Bermuda desperately needs its delicate balance restored.