“First solution: job creation. Second solution: job creation. Third solution: job creation.” The phrase is deliberately repetitive. James Monazard, Minister of Commerce and Industry, states it with the conviction of someone who has measured the scale of the problem. But in order to create jobs, one must first know how many jobs exist and how many have been lost. And that is where the problem lies.

The minister indeed acknowledged that the Haitian State currently lacks reliable and regular indicators capable of assessing developments in the labor market. Neither the Bank of the Republic of Haiti (BRH), nor the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), nor even his own ministry publishes consolidated statistics on the actual number of jobs created or lost in the country.