Preliminary figures from the latest Census show a tripling in the number of jobless Bermudians over the past decade, Bermuda Employers Council president Keith Jensen said.And Bermuda Public Services Union general secretary Ed Ball warned that the numbers already lag behind the current reality.Noted Mr Jensen: “The figure rose from 838 unemployed Bermudians in 2000 to 2,419 in 2010. The labour market is dynamic, and it is likely that the number of unemployed Bermudians in 2011 would have increased again, given the redundancies announced this year.”He said: “Businesses have welcomed Government’s efforts to stimulate the economy through the reduction in payroll tax announced in the 2011/12 Budget, and the most recent zero payroll tax rate for a retail industry in a three-year decline, and the retraining of Bermudians for certain jobs.”However, he added: “There remains a gap between current efforts and the need to create employment through incentives, investment and new international business.”Firms had to be given incentives to expand their workforces, he said and both local and international employers needed incentives to bring home jobs that have been outsourced.Mr Jensen said the Island could woo investment and new international business by changing the term limit policy while protecting the legitimate aspirations of BermudiansCalling Bermuda “a high-cost operating environment”, he urged Government to open training opportunities by “widening the requirements for bone fide training programmes, thus giving incentives to train Bermudian supervisors and managers leading change and innovation”.Looking at the latest figures, Mr Ball said: “Maybe we need to have some hardship to get some of our people to realise that we are not an island alone.”He said he felt frustrated by “the attitude of wanting three, five, seven percent increases in salary” from certain local workers.“In terms of statistics, these were taken when the Census was taken,” he said. “Since then, the economy has gotten worse.”Mr Ball said he believed Government’s financial assistance programme and unemployment insurance would have to be expanded “one way or another”.“The only way for Bermuda to come out of this economic hardship is we all must come together and work out a new economic model”.He called on “some of us, especially our workers, to stop being selfish”.“Some groups of workers feel that if the police manage to get a benefits award, then everybody should. That might be fine if the money was there.”Mr Ball said unions had to bear some responsibility for “the mindset of some of our members”, saying the demands of some Bermudians would “put their cousins out of work”.