The Finance Minister’s recent press statement contained the following: “Changes in the black working population and white population are indeed significant and are something of note.”

This tidbit came after the Minister and his Government found themselves under inordinate pressure to release the recently completed Labour Force Survey for 2014.

The survey itself, which was compiled by the Department of Statistics, had been essentially held hostage by the Minister and his colleagues since at least October of last year.

One got the distinct impression during the Finance Minister’s press conference that if they could have gotten away with not releasing the survey at all, they would have.

It was also clear that while the facts are saying one thing, the One Bermuda Alliance Government and its surrogates over the past year or so have been saying something quite different — about the health of this economy.

Nonetheless, the Minister was correct in highlighting the fact that, increasingly, Bermuda’s economy continues to produce significant disparities between black and white. These disparities have been exacerbated by a recession that the OBA has had no success in arresting. We need no more evidence of that than the fact that last year, not only did earnings fall but the survey indicates that the workforce shrunk by an extraordinary 511 persons.

The attrition continued last week with the news that American Airlines will shed fifteen Bermuda-based employees. Even our once vaunted reinsurance industry is not immune, as the XL-Catlin merger will also result in a reduction of local staffing levels.

The Finance Minister is concerned, and quite rightly, about the relative changes to the black and white working populations.

The survey starkly reveals, for example, that year over year the black working population shrunk by an estimated 1,037 persons.

By way of contrast, during the same period, the white working population saw an estimated 686-person increase in numbers.

Mr Richards knows, as I do, that in a multiracial society such as ours, this statistic, along with others, conveys that we are like two ships going in opposite directions with respect to this economy.

Let’s look at the unemployment figures. Firstly, the survey reveals that the black unemployment rate has reached record levels and now stands at 12 per cent.

Secondly, the white unemployment rate has increased as well, year over year from two per cent in 2013 to four per cent last year, as did those of other groups such as permanent residents.

Yet the black unemployment rate in Bermuda is still approximately three times the level of the white rate of unemployment.

Notwithstanding the above, the overall unemployment rate now stands at nine per cent, its highest level ever in terms of recorded statistics.

As a political party, we take no pleasure in the above. We have too many of our relatives and constituents who live in the real Bermudian economy who are either unemployed or underemployed. We also note that our young people need the opportunity to meaningfully start their working lives.

Numerous studies have shown that young people who enter their most productive working years during a recession and who experience mid to long-term unemployment never really catch up later in life. In other words, the loss of valuable experience, earnings and opportunity are never compensated for.

The youth unemployment level in the survey — characterised as those between the ages of 16 and 24 — has essentially skyrocketed from 22 per cent in 2013 to 29 per cent today.

Let’s hope that our Government and our Finance Minister draw the proper lessons from this debacle.

As to the development projects that the OBA has been touting — most of which still need to go through the lengthy planning process — our hope is that they will start to produce the type of good, well-paying jobs needed.

We urgently need to restore economic growth to those who live in the real economy and engender among Bermudians a renewed sense of optimism about their futures. As the Labour Force Survey now confirms, we have seen precious little of that of late.

Rolfe Commissiong is the Shadow Minister of Human Affairs