Social Indicators Very high unemployment has increased poverty and caused many social problems. Unemployment rates have traditionally been high in Trinidad and Tobago, even at the height of the oil boom. During the oil boom, however, high social expenditures and transfers mitigated the link between poverty and unemployment. The oil price decline, reduced economic activity and declines in public revenues have led to retrenchments in both the public and the private sector. As a result, unemployment rates doubled from 10 percent of the labor force in 1982 to 20 percent in 1992, while part-time employment increased from 8 percent of the labor force in 1982 to 15 percent in 1992.
Unemployment rates are highest among youth and are higher for females than for males.
In recent years a group of new poor has emerged, having slipped below the poverty line because of loss of employment. As in many other Caribbean countries, this, coupled with high youth unemployment, has contributed to growing problems of crime and drug use. Trinidad and Tobago traditionally had good health and education services, but both have deteriorated significantly in recent years due to falling public expenditures. In health, real per capita expenditures halved over the last ten years, and the decline in education has been even more severe, with real expenditures now amounting to one-fifth of their 1982 levels. As a result, a large number of students now graduate without basic cognitive and numerical skills.