So now joblessness is seasonal — who knew? Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis, who once thundered that rising unemployment was a hallmark of “visionless leadership,” is apparently now advised that a closed grouper season and “more people looking for work” explain why nearly 26,000 Bahamians were without jobs in January 2025. The Bahamas National Statistical Institute’s Labour Force Survey put the unemployment rate at 10.8% in Q1 2025 (25,925 unemployed) — a jump from the 8.7% the government celebrated late last year.

Yes, really: the grouper season. That is the Prime Minister’s first-line of defence — fishermen out of work for a few months, so national unemployment pops up and voilà, problem explained. That explanation was reported verbatim by local press and attributed to the administration during a press briefing. If policy-makers can shrug off a national jobs statistic as “seasonal” without showing a plan to re-employ the newly unemployed, they’re treating labour-market pain like a weather pattern — inconvenient, temporary, and beyond governance.

Meanwhile, the Government is basking in a much-vaunted S&P re-rating — S&P upgraded The Bahamas’ long-term sovereign rating to BB- from B+ last week — a useful nugget for bond markets and headline bragging rights.

But here’s the political math they aren’t doing: a better credit rating is not the same thing as a better life for the average worker. Credit agencies judge macro stability, debt trajectories and investor confidence; they do not measure whether the breadwinner down the road can find steady pay, afford rising electricity bills, or weather a tax increase. The government can tout improved sovereign optics and still preside over a labour market that’s getting worse for real people.

That disconnect is exactly what critics warned about.

And let’s be precise about the Moody’s angle, since it keeps getting waved around in press conferences: Moody’s has affirmed The Bahamas at B1 and moved the outlook to positive earlier in 2025, signalling improved medium-term debt dynamics — not a guarantee that unemployment will fall tomorrow. Rating actions and labour market outcomes can move in different directions. Treating one as proof of success on the other is sloppy politics.

So, the prime minister’s argument reduces to: “Trust us, the country’s credit score is better, so the economy must be better.” That’s a comfort to bondholders; it’s thin consolation to a laid-off fisher, a youth struggling to find work, or a family watching electricity bills climb. If the administration truly believes more people “looking for work” is inherently encouraging, they should pair the boast with concrete, immediate steps — training, targeted stimulus for affected sectors (fishing, tourism-linked services), wage support, or meaningful incentives for firms to hire — not rhetorical sleight-of-hand about seasonal fish.

Finally, a piece of modest political housekeeping: when you once used high unemployment as a cudgel to brand your opponents “visionless,” you can’t credibly wave it away as a seasonal quirk when the numbers flip under your watch. Either unemployment is a sign of failed policy, or it is a transient statistical hiccup. Pick a lane — voters remember both positions. While receiving a higher rating from S&P is noteworthy, it does not directly affect salary; only income from employment is reflected in pay checks.  

The Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) fails for one reason; it is their nature.

END