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Employment Stories in the English Speaking Caribbean

Employment Stories in the English Speaking Caribbean. Ralph Henry Kairi Consultants Ltd October 21, 2004. Characteristics of Caribbean Economies. Smallness and small market size Lack of diversification Imports and Exports high, relative to GDP – highly open economies

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Employment Stories in the English Speaking Caribbean

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  1. Employment Stories in the English Speaking Caribbean Ralph Henry Kairi Consultants Ltd October 21, 2004

  2. Characteristics of Caribbean Economies • Smallness and small market size • Lack of diversification • Imports and Exports high, relative to GDP – highly open economies • Reliance on limited range of products and services • Lack of competitiveness and reliance on preferences • Technological dependence • Vulnerable to trade shocks

  3. Caribbean Development and Employment Creation • Lewis’s Dilemma • Solution Set • Capital and Entrepreneurship from abroad • Markets in metro-pole and brought by foreign capital itself • Low wage and the virtuous circle

  4. Labour Market Features • Endemic unemployment • Labour Market does not clear • Trade Unions and stickiness of wages • Institutional structures and labour markets • Labour and Politics • Labour market segmentation • Reservation wages – mineral export sector, workers can ‘afford’ unemployment • Metropolitan lifestyle and links to Metropole determining wage goods

  5. Economic Strategy • ISI • Agricultural Diversification • Nationalisation and Commanding Heights • Economic Integration • Labour intensive technology • Export promotion – EPZs, and international division of labour, segmentation – garments and assembly operations • Tourism led growth • State sector employment and SEP

  6. Stabilisation and Structural Adjustment Experience • Attempt at Flexibilisation • Retrenchment and Reduction of State Employment • Getting prices right • Informalisation of work • Technological Change

  7. Industrial Strategy and Existing Tradables • Jamaica – bauxite/alumina, bananas, sugar, light manufacturing, data entry, tourism, underground economy and informal sector, music • St. Lucia – bananas, light manufacturing, data entry, tourism, • Barbados – sugar, light manufacturing, information processing, tourism, other services • Trinidad and Tobago – oil and gas, manufacturing and regional markets, financial services, sugar, music

  8. Intervening Institutions • Conflict management and labour markets • Industrial Court in Trinidad and Tobago • Tripartite Accord in Barbados • Open conflict – political taint • People response – Transnational household – remittances, migration (intra and extra-regional, eg. nursing for migration) music and culture, informal sector, underground economy

  9. Role and Response of Government • The Bigger State – subject to revenue • SMEs • SEPs: function of government revenues – Unemployment Relief Programme (URP), CEPEP and OJT for youth, and MuST for 18-50, in Trinidad and Tobago – sustainable with high revenues from gas and oil • Human Resource Development with wide open doors to post-secondary education and training in Barbados

  10. Lessons or Moral of Story • Employment generation by diversifying and strengthening tradable sector - HRD implications therefrom • Difficult to avoid mechanisms to share work in the short term, including using SEPs • Managing remittances and savings, including ‘in-shoring’ savings from abroad, and redraining brains, and market penetration by migrants abroad eg music and culture • Empowerment through human resource development rather than certification of labour

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