Download 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
 Reliance on limited range of products and
services
 Lack of competitiveness and reliance on
preferences
 Technological dependence
 Vulnerable to trade shocks
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
Growth of Employment Barbados (1970-2001)
12.0
10.0
8.0
6.0
4.0
2.0
0.0
-2.0
-4.0
-6.0
Year
Barbados Growth
00
20
98
19
96
19
94
19
92
19
90
19
88
19
86
19
84
19
82
19
80
19
78
19
76
19
74
19
72
19
19
70
-8.0
Growth of Employment Jamaica (1975-2001)
12.0
10.0
8.0
6.0
4.0
2.0
0.0
-2.0
-4.0
-6.0
Year
Jamaica Growth
01
20
99
19
97
19
95
19
93
19
91
19
89
19
87
19
85
19
83
19
81
19
79
19
77
19
19
75
-8.0
Growth of Employment Trinidad & Tobago
(1970-2001)
8.0
6.0
4.0
2.0
0.0
-2.0
-4.0
Year
Trinidad & Tobago Growth
00
20
98
19
96
19
94
19
92
19
90
19
88
19
86
19
84
19
82
19
80
19
78
19
76
19
74
19
72
19
19
70
-6.0
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
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
Stabilisation and Structural
Adjustment Experience
 Attempt at Flexibilisation
 Retrenchment and Reduction of State
Employment
 Getting prices right
 Informalisation of work
 Technological Change
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
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 extraregional, eg. nursing for migration) music and
culture, informal sector, underground economy
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 1850, 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
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