The real jobless rate in Bermuda could be more than double official figures, a top Opposition MP claimed yesterday.

Shadow Labour and Home Affairs Minister Alex Scott said that census figures for unemployment were more accurate than Government Employment Office figures.

And he insisted that meant the official figures for 1991 compared to that year's census showed an Employment Office rate of 0.5 to 2 percent compared to 4.5 percent.

Mr. Scott said: "This was a challenge to the United Bermuda Party Government to create jobs, stable employment and careers for the broad spectrum of Bermudians in the decade of the 90s. The UBP Government failed.'' Mr. Scott was speaking as he unveiled Opposition plans for increasing employment prospects for Bermudians.

He claimed Bermudians began to lose out on their share of the job market to expat workers between 1982/91 -- and said that "unacceptable trend'' continued.

He added black men particularly, but also black women, according to the 1991 census, were more likely to have found themselves out of work than their white counterparts.

But he said: "The reason we break it down is not to indicate race, but to indicate the challenge of getting people into the workplace.'' Mr. Scott added: "A major problem in Bermuda, in many sectors of the economy, is that Bermudians percieve they are being discouraged by questionable employment practices.'' But he said the cost of equivalent education in the trades for a Bermudian had been estimated to be ten times that in the UK.

And he added that Bermuda employers could find it much cheaper to hire from abroad that invest in training a Bermudian.

Alex Scott