The lateness of the Island’s jobs statistics renders them “absolutely useless”, according to Independent Senator and business observer James Jardine — even as the latest survey shows 800 fewer positions last year.

That figure was released earlier this week by the Department of Statistics in its Employment Briefs, derived from surveys conducted in August 2014. The report was followed yesterday by a retail sales index showing 4.3 per cent growth in sales for the month of April over 2014 levels, which was widely interpreted as an encouraging sign for the Bermuda economy.

However, for Sen Jardine, the lack of current information on unemployment leaves the Island’s legislators operating in a fog of supposition.

“We debate unemployment in the Senate and I am quoting a report with information that’s probably a year old,” Sen Jardine said. “We would have a far more positive debate if we had information that told us exactly what’s going on.”

Asked for his assessment of voters’ mood, Sen Jardine said: “Confused. That’s what worries me — the average person out there is confused from hearing one group saying one thing and another saying something else. You have to ask, where is the referee here?”

The “information gap” comes up regularly in Budget debates, he added.

“We get information from different sources, much of it very old. We have the Labour Force Survey dated January 2014, which purports to be the survey for 2013. Yet the survey takes place during one week in May 2013 and the statistics are not issued until eight months later. Then we have the Employment Brief, which is similar but different. It contains a lot of useful information about gross annual income from various industries, but again, it only comes out once a year, with information from August-September, and again it’s nearly a year until we get it: eight months. It’s old by the time we get it. So with these two areas of statistics, people will quote them depending on what’s to their advantage.”

Consistent studies should be issued on a quarterly basis, he said.

“There is no statistical information that you can hang your hat on and the rest is anecdotal, which leads to a lot of arguments that are unnecessary. In larger countries like the United States, this information comes out on a monthly basis.

“In addition, we only get information on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) once a year. In February 2015 we get the 2014 report, and yet when you open to the table on GDP it’s only up to 2013. They comment on 2014, to be fair, but only what it’s estimated to be. In an economy which has gone through a huge retraction in terms of the number of people in the workforce, again, the information that will tell us about recovery is old. We’re operating in a vacuum.”

The retail sales index, Sen Jardine conceded, served to some extent as a barometer of recovery: a rise in sales could realistically constitute a good sign.

“Again, though, one needs to drill down and look at various areas within it,” he said.

“One thing I would suggest of the Department of Statistics is that we collect payroll tax every quarter; everybody working has to file it. The breakdown is not detailed but at least it might help us. I think getting monthly job statistics is asking a bit much of a small place like Bermuda but we could obtain it on a quarterly basis. Otherwise, looking at information that’s six months to a year old is absolutely useless.”