THA to address job creation, productivity

CREATING jobs and enhancing productivity will be of critical importance to the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) in the upcoming fiscal year.

Delivering the 2020 budget at the Assembly Legislature in Scarborough on Monday, Secretary of Finance and the Economy Joel Jack reported that the most recent labour market data on Tobago from the Central Statistical Office (CSO) suggested approximately 57 per cent of the labour force works in the state sector. The private sector, he said, employs 43 per cent. By contrast, at the national level, he added, about 25 per cent of the labour force is employed by the state sector.

“The distribution of employment between the state and private sector is less than optimal, and it is something that we will continue to address over the medium to long term, as we seek to create more sustainable and high-paying jobs in the private sector.

“This will only happen if the private sector on the island can develop and expand to such an extent that they can scale up their existing operations and penetrate new export markets. One of the strategies proposed is a job-vacancy survey that will detail the jobs required by the private sector now and in the future.

Jack said this would assist in making the matching process easier.

“(It will) foster a greater alignment between the skills required by the private sector and the skills available in our labour force. The information emanating from this survey will inform the priority areas for tertiary-level funding from the Assembly’s Department of Advanced Training and Advisory Services.”

He said to assist in this recruitment process, the assembly will continue to make the services of the Employment Exchange Bureau available to the private sector in Tobago free of charge. He noted that even as the assembly deals with employment issues “it is of vital importance that we continue to address the problems of productivity, both in the public and private sectors.”

Earlier this year, the assembly debated initiatives and solutions to the productivity challenges confronting the island and two major initiatives to address these challenges were the establishment of the Tobago Productivity Council and the Public Service Academy.

“Our productivity challenge is one which we must confront with urgency and an executive council note has been prepared for the review of the Executive Council.”