EDITORIAL: Economies and employment

 

THERE used to be a time when employment was guaranteed by countries and by governments as they looked to make sure that most people, if not all, had a job. However times have changed and what was perhaps taken for granted maybe 30 years or 40 years ago is no longer the case. Job creation is becoming problematic.
 
Nowadays employment cannot be guaranteed by either the public sector or even the private sector – something that is not restricted to Barbados but the rest of the world. 
Our attention to this issue was reinforced by David Jessop in one of his columns carried in this newspaper recently. The term reinforced is used because recent happenings, certainly since the onset of recession in 2008, have demonstrated the enormous changes the job market has undergone since then. 
 
With the emergence of the economic crisis companies have had to shed labour to maintain their viability in an environment where sales have plummeted for one reason or another. They have turned to technologies which offer the opportunities to be able to compete while cutting labour and other costs to keep abreast with the prevailing business and economic environment.
 
Then there is the case of governments which were faced with declining tax revenues, low productivity (by state employees), high fiscal deficits, but with a commitment to still offer public services, that had no alternative but to trim their countries’ workforce.
 
Mr. Jessop queried just how well the Caribbean would cope with the ‘disruptive technology’ that could in less than a decade change structurally, employment, competitiveness and consumer thinking in most developed and in many developing nations. One of the points he mentioned as well was the “artificial intelligence and robotics that will alter not just the nature of employment, but in the surprisingly near future, will take away the livelihoods of many millions of workers globally, including in the Caribbean.
 
Sounds frightening? It certainly does, especially when the International Labour Organization (ILO) seemed not to be holding out much hope for gains in employment in 2016 even as the international economy continues its slow march to recovery from the events of the past eight to nine years.
 
Earlier this year the International Labour Organization (ILO) reported that a key finding from one of its surveys is that the expansion of the world economy is unlikely to lead to gains in employment. In other words the ILO has maintained that the improvements in the global economy are too weak to close the significant employment and social gaps that have emerged since the beginning of the global crisis in 2008.
 
In Barbados the trend has been to promote entrepreneurship and small business development since it is recognized that the state can no longer be the place to employ the surplus labour emerging in the country. Small business development as has been said on many occasions is the way to go because opportunities for the generation of employment are greater than with larger entities. 
 
Faced with this situation the Governments therefore have to ensure that the appropriate infrastructure – what is commonly referred to as the enabling environment – is in place to aid those who want to try their hands at becoming entrepreneurs.
 
It is a real issue and one which calls for a sensible approach to these matters. Our labour force is growing but with fewer opportunities for job seekers. Therefore we have to finds ways to meet that demand.

Barbados Advocate

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