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News report: Goudie to Nassauvians - Move to Freeport for upcoming economic growth

  • BCCEC
  • 1 hour ago
  • 3 min read

Published by Youri Kemp, The Nassau Guardian, December 1, 2025

Peter Goudie, labor division head of the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers’ Confederation (BCCEC), said Freeport will take off very soon, and he is encouraging Nassauvians to move there to take advantage of the opportunities.


Goudie, speaking to Guardian Business after the release of the country’s latest employment figures from the Bahamas National Statistical Institute (BNSI), said he noticed in the statistics that a significant amount of employment has been created in Freeport.


He added: “That doesn’t surprise me, but what’s good news about that is there’s a lot of investment going into Freeport, in the harbors and cruise port and all the rest of that. So that’s going to create more employment.”


Goudie continued: “My deep, deep hope is that the numbers keep rising in Freeport, and that people from Nassau go to Freeport and start to build lives. Let’s get serious about this.


“If Freeport can take off – which I think isn’t going to happen now, it’s going to take a year or two – but if Freeport can take off with the construction of the cruise port, and all the rest of that good stuff, then it will need people. And if Freeport doesn’t have enough people, then they have to come from Nassau.


The BNSI recently released its second-quarter labor force numbers, which showed an unemployment rate of 9.3 percent, a decrease from 10.8 percent in the previous quarter.


Department of Labour Executive Manager Quinton LaRoda spoke to the media about Grand Bahama’s contribution to the decreasing unemployment figures. He said, “We could see just from the feedback that we are receiving from the employers and from the laborers in Grand Bahama that things have improved and that more Bahamians are being placed with jobs, and the job fairs are having a tremendous amount of success. One of the things that we attribute the success to is that businesses are coming back to us to partner with them to have more job fairs.”


Goudie also said, “They are going to need more housing. There have to be more houses built. People have to build a house. But the infrastructure, from the roads, the land, and all that good stuff, is already there.


“Freeport is ready to take on a ton of people, and could do it tomorrow. You don’t have to build anything, like you don’t have to develop the land or the roads or anything. They’re already there.


“I’m optimistic about these unemployment numbers coming down, and I’m optimistic about our future prospects in Freeport.”


The unemployment rate dropped to 9.3 percent in Q2 of 2025, according to preliminary labor force survey results released by the BNSI.


Unemployment fell by 1.5 percentage points from the first quarter’s 10.8 percent, driven by rising job numbers from April to June. Total employment climbed to 218,620, up by 3,895 quarter-to-quarter, while the number of unemployed persons declined to 22,470, a fall of 3,455.


Joblessness decreased for both men and women. Unemployment among men fell from 12,630 to 10,690. Female unemployment dropped from 13,295 to 11,780.


“The unemployment rate for males and females declined by 1.6 and 1.3 percentage points, respectively. Among youths, the unemployment rate stood at 20.3 percent, a decrease of 0.6 percentage points compared to the first quarter of 2025,” the BNSI said.




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