CHAIRMAN of the Margaritaville Caribbean Group Ian Dear said the country will have to soon act with “absolute urgency” to address a tightening labour market with imported labour, particularly for entities operating in the hospitality sector, if the recent boom in the tourism industry is to be sustained. Dear, however, added that all avenues to use local labour must first be exhausted before any consideration is made to import workers.

Dear, who in January this year outlined that his own companies were in need of 400 workers, said he has managed to hire “a lot of these people” since then. But he warned that with the projected “growth of the economy and in particular tourism”, thousands of additional people are going to be required by the resorts that are opening up, and may not be able to find that labour in Jamaica.

“In my industry and the hotel industry, a lot of the same people are moving around as they seek opportunities for better, but it’s the same people,” Dear pointed out to the Jamaica Observer. He said that observation has led him to conclude that “the challenge we are having is that the capacity may really not exist”, in terms of available labour, to fill thousands of positions across various industries and the hospitality sector in particular.

Jamaica’s economy which slumped by as much as 11 per cent in the midst of the novel coronavirus pandemic, has recovered strongly, growing by 8.2 per cent in 2021/22 and 3.5 per cent in the 2022/23 fiscal years, with that recovery projected to continue, albeit at the slower 2.0 per cent in the current 2023/24 fiscal year. Jobs have followed the recovery, pushing the unemployment rate down to a historic low 4.5 per cent. Currently, more than 1.3-million Jamaicans are working, the highest number of gainfully employed people since labour market data have been tracked. But another 722,000 people, who are of working age, remain outside the workforce, including hundreds of thousands who are not in school, are of working age and capable of working, yet have no desire to work.

Dear acknowledged that “there is a certain percentage who are not interested in working”, adding that the country needs to “figure out how to either attract or to appeal to that set of people”, but admits it doesn’t present “a great opportunity because it is going to be hard to convert those people”.

“After we exhaust that, we may be in a position where labour comes from the outside, but obviously that’s something that we want to ensure is properly exhausted before we get there. But from what I am hearing, as it stands now in my own company, and the industry as a whole, is that there is a very serious concern around availability of labour…and so we could literally see thousands of people that are required next year in 2024 may not be available.”

Dear said because of the potential the tight labour market could have on the growth momentum, the Government needs to act fast to cauterise the situation before it becomes a serious problem.

“The reality is that the engine of growth for Jamaica is tourism, nobody can debate that, and so what is required for tourism to continue the huge growth that we are enjoying now is to ensure that we can deliver on the experience and the services that we provide in our tourism offerings. So we must deal with this issue with absolute urgency because, one, we want to employ as many Jamaicans as possible, but two, ultimately, we also want to ensure that the industry continues to grow and flourish.”

But he said the action must be strategic to ensure it is not abused.