Corporate Jamaica still pitching for imported workers

Corporate Jamaica hasn’t given up on its push to import more foreign labour.

Private sector interests are calling on the government to make the process to bring in workers from abroad less complicated in hopes of easing Jamaica’s labour shortage in the short term.

However, the umbrella group of trade unions says the process of granting work permits to foreigners is in urgent need of overhaul.

Metry Seaga, president of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica, PSOJ, which represents the largest and most powerful companies in Jamaica, said the grouping has been lobbying the government to relax the work permit process for some time.

“People are finding it hard to find skilled employees, or even unskilled employees in many different subsectors of our economy. It is a concern and we have lobbied the government and continue so to do, to make the process for getting labour from other parts of the world, less expensive and easier,” Seaga told the Financial Gleaner.

Meanwhile, Christopher Clarke, CEO of Caribbean Cream Limited, expressed his support for the importation of labour, at least in the short term. He said finding workers is a challenge for his company which employs about 150 persons.

“It is a benefit for the country as a whole to have the unemployment rate where it is, but it is a challenge for us as employers because the talent pool has shrunk. We have to adjust and change some of our ways of doing business but at least the short-term finding is significantly hard.

“Importing labour is something I think about and quite frankly I think it’s something that needs to happen. For Jamaica to continue on its growth trajectory, at least in the short term, we have to import some talent, but for the long term we have to invest heavily in education and training to upskill the workforce. The unemployment rate for skilled workers is basically zero. If you are looking for an engineer or technician you are basically taking them from another job, that’s just facts,” Clarke said.

Also supporting the importation of labour in the short term, president of the Jamaica Employers Federation Wayne Chen said that with the unemployment rate at a record low of about 4.2 per cent many job vacancies remain unfilled.

“Critically there is a shortage of high-value, marketable skills in the workforce. Only about 40 per cent of Jamaica’s workers have certified skills. This has a negative impact on investment, productivity and wage levels as businesses cannot expand quickly and worker compensation stagnates, and low-skilled jobs disappear as more become automated. Investors seeking pools of skilled workers go elsewhere, so potential business opportunities are also lost. This has cost Jamaica dearly in decades of low economic growth compared to our peers in the LAC region. Each percentage point of lost GDP growth costs Jamaica about US$200 million,” Chen said.

However, president of the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions St Patrice Ennis expressed doubt about a labour shortage in areas such as construction and bauxite, and said the principle of firstly offering positions to Jamaicans was being flouted by the Ministry of Labour.

“We hear of companies in the bauxite sector employing Cuban nationals saying they have particular skills that we don’t have. Being a person who is heavily invested in the bauxite sector having representation in all the companies, when I checked with the HR departments they are not aware of the shortage of any skill set,” Ennis told the Financial Gleaner.

“Moreover, in the event that there is a skill shortage, a permit given to an expatriate should be temporary until we can develop our own skilled worker. We should have somebody understudying or being trained to fill that position after a specified period. We find that not to be the case,” Ennis said.

Planning Institute of Jamaica data published in the Economic and Social Survey Jamaica 2023 report, indicates that the Ministry of Labour and Social Security received 4,988 work permit applications for the 2023 calendar year, an 8.8 per cent increase over 2022.

Of this number, 2,644 were for renewals, while the remaining 2,344 were new applications.

The survey said the number of approved work permits increased by 22.1 per cent to 4,783.

“Of all the permits approved, 80.2 per cent was issued to males,” the report noted.

Work permit approvals continued to be granted predominantly in the following industries: wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicle and equipment – 1,961; construction – 966, and accommodation and food service activities – 612.

The largest number of approvals by occupation were managers – 1,812; professionals – 1,172, technicians and associate professionals – 699, and craft and trade-related workers – 562.

The largest number of foreign nationals receiving work permits came from China (1,817), India (726) and Mexico (396) the survey indicated.

Under the Foreign Nationals and Commonwealth Citizens (Employment) Act of 1964, foreign nationals pursuing employment in Jamaica must first apply to the labour ministry for a work permit.

luke.douglas@gleanerjm.com