Newly released labor market data from Belize paints a complex, uneven portrait of the country’s economy in mid-2026, with aggregate growth masking deep hardship for a significant segment of the workforce. According to the Statistical Institute of Belize (SIB), the nation’s average monthly income has ticked upward in recent months, a gain driven largely by growth in formal employment positions and a small overall increase in the average number of hours worked across the labor force. But a closer breakdown of the statistics exposes a stark divide in economic outcomes between fully employed workers and their underemployed peers.
Underemployed workers – defined as individuals who are currently employed but do not receive enough working hours to meet their financial needs or full employment expectations – have seen a dramatic collapse in their monthly earnings, SIB manager Christian Orellana confirmed in an interview with local broadcaster Paul Lopez. At the start of 2025, the average monthly earnings for underemployed Belizeans stood at $1,009. As of mid-2026, that figure has plummeted to just $603, representing a $406 monthly drop that has left this group significantly worse off financially than 18 months prior.
Orellana noted that the steep decline is directly tied to the core challenge of underemployment: underemployed workers are now working fewer average hours on aggregate than they did at the beginning of 2025, cutting deeply into their total take-home pay. The aggregate income growth recorded across the entire labor force, by contrast, is entirely fueled by gains in the formal sector, where expanded hours and stable positions have pushed the overall average income up by $27 per month.
The conflicting numbers have sparked new discussion among labor analysts and policymakers about what metrics truly reflect economic health in Belize. While headline employment growth and rising aggregate incomes are typically framed as positive economic indicators, the sharp decline in earnings for underemployed workers raises urgent questions about job quality, rather than just raw job counts. Many analysts argue that the diverging trends show that broad economic growth is not benefiting all workers equally, with marginalized members of the workforce seeing their financial stability erode even as the national headline numbers improve.
Full additional analysis of the SIB’s latest labor force survey findings is expected to be published in a subsequent newscast from the outlet. This report is a transcript of a televised evening news broadcast, with translated Kriol speech adapted to a standardized spelling system for the online publication.