The emergence and almost immediate adoption of the term “Emancipendence” by the Jamaican populace is perhaps a major indication of its organic nature and the evolutionary thinking of the people.

That is why the recent Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) call to celebrate Emancipation Day — August 1 — and Independence Day — August 6 — over two consecutive days makes innately good sense.

As happens now, the holidays are marked over a six-day period, separated by three or four working days, which means that factories and other installations that need time to shut down/start up, have to choose between losing productive days or paying staff to work overtime.

More importantly, the withdrawal of labour across critical industries contributes to the already woefully low productivity quotient that shows up later in Jamaica’s bang belly economy which has never been able to support our almost three million people.

The issue that has always faced Jamaica is whether, in the circumstance of low productivity, we can afford the number of holidays that we have. There is also the question of how do we measure the benefits of our holidays in respect of the development of our country.

While Jamaica has done well, in that unemployment has dropped to 4.5 per cent, there has not been a commensurate rise in economic growth. Between 2015 and 2023 employment grew by 13 per cent, but economic output increased by just five per cent, according to the Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CAPRI).

“When employment grows faster than output it implies that the average output of additional workers is lower than that of the previously employed ones; that is, there is a decline in productivity,” CAPRI says.

This productivity decline and the resulting growth gap of eight per cent emerged because most newly employed workers were less skilled and thereby less productive than those previously hired, CAPRI found in its Growthless Jobs Report.

Of the industries that expanded the most, construction and business process outsourcing (BPO) involve mostly low value-added activities, and have had to hire workers who are increasingly less skilled.

In fact, while nearly all 12 major industries experienced an increase in employment, there was a simultaneous rise in productivity in only three of those industries. The further point should be made that of the new jobs being created, the BPO sector accounts for one in four. Imagine the catastrophe if the bottom falls out of that sector.

It is in that scenario that we are observing 10 public holidays annually: New Year’s Day; Ash Wednesday; Good Friday; Easter Monday; Labour Day; Emancipation Day; Independence Day; National Heroes’ Day; Christmas Day; and Boxing Day.

One can treat Labour Day, with its call to action for voluntary work to benefit communities as a productive day, even though more and more people are taking it as a day of rest and relaxation, as beach attendance testifies.

The importance of celebrating our Emancipation and Independence is not really about how much time we take off to frolic, but more so about the quality of the celebrations. We can commemorate the events while increasing productivity, over one weekend. In other words, we can ride and whistle.

Pity that people like our Chief Justice Bryan Sykes remain so blinkered.