Holness points to importance of acquiring a skill
PM says there’s heavy competition among firms for workers
GREEN ISLAND, Westmoreland — Prime Minister and Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Leader Dr Andrew Holness said the results of a recent survey, which show a historic record low unemployment rate of 3.3 per cent in Jamaica, mean that people currently without a job will find it harder to gain employment without the requisite skills.
“What it means is that if 100 people were gathered, [aged] between 16 and 60, able-bodied [people] that are willing to work, only three of them on average would not be employed,” Holness stated in an address to a JLP Hanover Western Constituency Workers Meeting held at Green Island High School in the parish on Thursday.
“It means that there is heavy competition among firms for workers. The people who are not employed now, the challenge that they have is that they need to get a little more skill because the hotels, the construction companies, the security companies are looking for people who have a certain level of training. What they recognise is that they must now invest in our schools for our schools to turn out the children with the required level of training,” Holness explained.
To bolster his argument he cited the newly opened Princess Hotels and Resorts partnership with Green Island High School, among others.
He told the audience what the Government intends to do to fill existing skills gaps.
“What we are going to be doing as a Government is ensuring that all of the hotels and businesses partner with our schools to make sure that our children know from the start that they have a purpose in life. They have a job waiting for them when they graduate from these schools,” assured Holness.
“We are going to ensure that every single Jamaican child understands that they have a purpose in life; that they don’t have to turn out to be a chopper (scammer). They don’t have to turn out to sit down on the street corner and do nothing,” he added.
The 3.3 per cent unemployment rate is an improvement from the previous quarter’s figure of 3.7 per cent recorded in the Labour Force Survey. The data also showed that there were 12,800 unemployed people when compared to the same period last year.
