Government is pushing ahead with plans to set up an unemployment insurance scheme but some business leaders are questioning the need for it.

Unions, employers groups and professional bodies have been given until Friday to complete a questionnaire about how they think the scheme should work.

Government put aside $1 million seed money in the last budget, while a task force has studied unemployment schemes abroad with an emphasis on Barbados, Canada, the UK and the US.

Bermuda Employers Council executive director Andrea Mowbray wondered why Government wanted to set up a scheme when Labour Minister Terry Lister had said the Island was booming and every new job resulted in a work permit.

She said: "He's admitting there's no unemployment in Bermuda unless someone wants to be out of work. So why are we consulting on this?"

Chamber of Commerce president Charles Gosling said: "There are some huge conceptual issues with this."

He said the scheme should not cover the unemployable. "It needs to be support for those who find themselves out of work through no fault of their own for an extended period of time."

He said employers recognised there were glaring gaps in the Bermuda social safety net which needed to be addressed.

"We are seeing pretty much full employment, I think we need to come up with some definite groups we are talking about and who this bill is going to support."

He said business would end up having to pay for some of the funding of the scheme.

Mr Gosling called for proper analysis of Bermuda's employment market to be released monthly or at least quarterly to give a statistical basis for policy.

Currently Financial Assistance provides help with rent and basic household needs for the unemployed, while under the contributory pensions scheme disability benefits are there for those who cannot work because of physical or mental disability.

The Employment Act 2000 also provides for severance pay for those made redundant.The Government are adopting International Labour Organisation's guidelines on unemployment insurance.

Bermuda Public Services Union General Secretary Ed Ball refused to discuss the scheme until the survey results had come in but Bermuda Industrial Union leader Derrick Burgess gave the survey strong backing.

He said workers in the hotel industry were hit by unemployment both in the off season and sometimes during the season.

Mr. Burgess said: "Government has to do the right thing. We don't have a crystal ball which will tell us what will happen in the event of the economy getting worse."

He said people complaining about setting up unemployment cover now would be the first to attack Government if they lost their job and needed help but found nothing had been done.

"People seem to think everyone is going to have work all the days of their lives. Government is being vigilant and intelligent."

Yesterday the chairman of the Chamber's economic committee, Kit Astwood, released statistics which showed projected jobs in the Bermuda economy were rising steadily while the local population wasn't rising nearly so fast.

Based on an average growth rate of two percent per year there would be two jobs for every Bermudian in the workforce by 2016.

But Mr. Astwood warned against the idea floated by Labour Minister Terry Lister to limit work permits.

He said a down turn could easily come with trouble in the middle east and that business could only really plan ahead three to five years.

Mr. Astwood said the important thing was to make sure Bermudians had opportunities to get the best jobs.