G
uyana marked Labour Day 2025 with a message of economic revival, as Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo reported that over 60,000 more people are employed now than when the PPP/C government took office in 2020. Speaking at a press conference on the eve of May 1, Jagdeo said this job growth reflects the current administration’s aggressive push to create opportunities after the previous APNU+AFC government’s term, during which thousands of jobs were lost in sugar, mining, forestry and other key.
Jagdeo contrasted the “dignity of work” restored under the People’s Progressive Party/Civic with the stagnation of 2015–2020. “If [people] don’t have work, it changes their entire outlook on life,” he noted, emphasizing how unemployment under the former government had eroded livelihoods. He pointed to several PPP/C initiatives fueling the turnaround: a part-time jobs programme now engaging 14,000+ workers (mostly women) and the rehiring of nearly 3,000 Amerindian Community Support Officers cut by the last government. These efforts, Jagdeo said, have injected incomes into families and reversed the austerity measures that hit rural communities in the past.
Crucially, the Vice President linked job creation with skills training. Over 30,000 scholarships have been awarded through the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) and some 20,000 people trained via the Women’s Innovation and Investment Network (WIIN) and the Board of Industrial Training. In Jagdeo’s telling, these programs are upgrading the workforce’s qualifications and earning power, unlike the previous administration which offered only about “1,000 scholarships… mainly for friends and family”.
Labour leaders also saw tangible benefits from the PPP/C’s pro-worker stance. Jagdeo highlighted restored collective bargaining and multi-year wage agreements with the public service, teachers, and sugar workers’ unions. Tax relief measures – such as a $50,000 monthly tax-free overtime allowance and higher income-tax thresholds for workers with dependents – have been implemented to boost take-home pay. Additionally, the one-month tax-free bonus for military and police ranks was reinstated at a cost of nearly GY$2 billion.
Prime Minister Mark Phillips, in his Labour Day message, praised the contributions of Guyanese workers across every region, from teachers to miners. He acknowledged that challenges remain but invoked the legacy of pioneers like Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow in advocating for fair labour practices. “Progress is earned through effort and unity,” Phillips said, urging continued partnership between government and workers. The overall tone of this year’s Labour Day was pride in recovery – and a reminder that the PPP/C government intends to keep employment growth at the center of Guyana’s development agenda.
