There were two documents that caught my attention this week, Edwin St Catherine’s Analysis of St Lucia Labour Market Needs Assessment Survey 2012 and the Budget Statement 2013-2014 . The irony is that one should have informed the other. There are some startling conclusions generated from the excellent statistical work done by Edwin in that Analysis, and he continues to be a good servant of St. Lucia. It is one’s hope that his work will be used more frequently in the development of policy within St. Lucia.
One would wish to highlight some of the conclusions developed and to examine how these can shape policy decisions in St. Lucia. The Analysis was done based on a sample size of 498 firms excluding agricultural farm holdings/firms and central government entities. The Assessment therefore provides some insight as to how the private sector is contributing to reduction in unemployment levels. The report also looked at the Employer’s evaluation of the strength and weaknesses of current employees and those being hired who were trained at the local institutions.
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS:
A. Job creation is the highest in the services sector.
B. In the construction sector there is in fact a rate of decline or job destruction rate of 7 %
C. Job creation is the highest among smaller firms of up to 50 employees
D. St. Lucia has a national Job Gap of 15, which means there are 15 people seeking employment for every vacancy that exists, and it goes higher to 28 in the rural districts. This is a most startling statistic.
E. There was an average of 90 net new jobs per month created within the private sector nationwide in the first eight months of 2012
F. Of the Job seekers for the period under consideration, 35% do not possess the qualification for the job vacancies.
G. Castries and Gros Islet dominated the location where jobs are available where the job gap goes down to 5 job seekers to every vacancy
H. Work ethics and Punctuality were described as the major weaknesses of new entrants into the job market
I. There is high satisfaction with the graduates from Sir Arthur Lewis Community College; the same cannot be said about the NSDC graduates.
How can the conclusions drawn from the Labour Assessment Survey inform policy? Has the policy statement in this year’s Budget Address reflected the situation?
The Service Sector is now the major creator of new jobs in St. Lucia and thus there has to be continued support to the growth of this sector. It therefore means that the related infrastructure to support this growth sector has to be expedited. One would hope that the proposed work to Port Castries and Hewannorra are accelerated in 2013-2014. The Airport Passenger Tax should be immediately reinstated and these funds should be used to give the present Terminal Building a facelift while the final planning for the new terminal is completed.
The above will also assist a construction sector that is dying. The results of the Labour Assessment also demonstrate that the Stimulus Package as presently configured has not worked and there must be a tweaking of the concept immediately. It is unfortunate that the various economists within the Ministry of Finance did not consult the stakeholders in the industry before advising the Government on the formulation of the Package. I maintain that an accelerated land development programme has to buttress a Construction Stimulus Programme.
Small Business is shown as the core to job creation and there has to be support to the small to medium firms. In St. Lucia, almost all construction firms have been relegated to the small to medium size based on employees. A possible level of support is to allow participation in the tendering process for externally funded project. Government Departments cannot set criteria for projects that create a situation where no local firm can qualify, as is the case in a recent tender.
The Analysis also shows the need to again look at a deliberate policy to move employment centres away from the North of the island. Why should all major Government Buildings be located in Castries? What is wrong in placing the Ministry of Education in Dennery or the Ministry of Agriculture in Micoud? If Government leads then the land use shift will begin.
The Report also shows up the weakness in our education system. We are boasting of Universal Secondary Education, yet we are sending children to secondary school who have obtained 0% in Maths at Common Entrance and expect them to understand Form 1 Maths principles of Venn Diagrams and Binary Numbers. Almost all of these students go through the 5 years, they become the ‘clown’ in the class to mask their total absence of understanding of what is being taught, and are placed in the job market unable to qualify for a job.
Thirty Five (35%) Percent of the job seekers do not have the minimum qualifications for the jobs available, and thus some approach has to be pursued to bring this grouping back into the job market. It is also a waste of public funds to put these children through five years of schooling before this preparation for the job market. The Government may have to consider changing some of the secondary schools to Tech/Voc schools with immediate effect.
Lastly, the curriculum has to reflect the weaknesses that are evident in the job seekers. It is recommended that a course in Work Ethics should be part of the school programme, and the Chamber of Commerce should partner with the Ministry of Education.
We have to begin to be creative and develop St. Lucia not on some paradigm we have read in a book, but have a ‘home –grown’ solution to our problems. May creativity be oozed from the fabric of our society.