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Jamaica grew for eight consecutive quarters to pull itself out from under the coronavirus, but planners want a larger skilled workforce to guard against a return to low growth.
The economy grew 2.7 per cent in the March quarter 2023 compared to the same quarter in 2022. The growth was driven by a 3.8 per cent expansion of the services sector and a dip of 0.7 per cent in the goods-producing sector.
“A constraint currently facing Jamaica and its investors is that of an adequate supply of sufficiently skilled labour to capitalise on the opportunities which will arise. Increasingly, the question of whether Jamaica has reached its full employment level with respect to labour has come to the fore,” said Dr Wayne Henry, director general of the Planning Institute of Jamaica, PIOJ, at his quarterly press briefing on Tuesday.
The ministries of tourism, and labour and social security are separately conducting research on Jamaica’s labour market, with a focus on the availability of skills in growing areas. The results will inform future policy decisions with respect to training needs and mobilisation options.
The labour force hovered at July 2022, with the unemployment rate then estimated at 6.6 per cent, according to the latest data published by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica. Societies are generally seen as being at or close to full employment with 5.0 per cent of the labour force actively seeking jobs.