Youth unemployment is reaching "crisis proportions.'' Shadow Labour and Immigration Minister Alex Scott made the claim to The Royal Gazette shortly after his speech at a PLP rally in Warwick on Thursday night.

Mr. Scott said: "All we can go by are the numbers of people who call and complain and the numbers of persons who say that their children either cannot find employment or they have to take positions that do not call upon their various skills.

"When one looks at the statistics from the surveys you can see a trend toward greater disenfranchisement of Bermudians in the workplace by an increasing number of contract workers.

"Unemployment is becoming a greater problem in our Island but we have no machinery to gauge our actual level. We are one of the only sophisticated economies that can't measure unemployment.

"If you could, you may well find that it is up as high as ten, 12 or as much as 15 percent while Government puts it down as low as two percent.'' Mr. Scott also said that party politics is and will continue to be the best vehicle for the advancement of Bermudian democracy than any other process.

And politicians must avail themselves of every opportunity to be closer to the people they serve, Mr. Scott said.

"We have all heard folks say that party politics should be dispensed with and that Bermuda should go back to 40 elected individual members.

"This is happening more frequently as the PLP starts to dominate,'' he said.

"The voting public should not be persuaded by such arguments.''