Herbert Lewis
One of the most pressing concerns of the Jamaican people for a very long time has been the need for productive work. As the election campaign kicks off, it is necessary for our political parties to concern themselves not just with rhetoric, but meaningful and constructive indication as to what measures and plans they intend to put in place to ensure that productive work will be created for our unemployed and underemployed.
People need to be assured that job
creation will be high on their agenda if and when they gain or retain state power. We have heard it said time and time again that the devil finds work for idle hands, and one might well ask what has been the social and economic cost to our country over these years because we have not been able to put so many idle hands to productive work.
Work is central to people's lives. Not only do many of our citizens depend on it for their survival, but it is also a source of integration into society, self-fulfilment, and hope for future generation. This makes productive work a critical factor in our social and political stability There is, therefore,
little doubt that our political parties must place productive work high on their agenda, as it is of critical relevance today,
perhaps more so than any other time.
Fresh approach needed
The position of employment in the scheme of economic and social development has been altered radically with time, the crucial inference being that a fresh approach is needed to look at the entire subject of employment in the overall scheme of development.
Economic policies today often appear to view employment as a residual outcome of other objectives, a result of which has been that these policies are not as effective as they could be if employment consequences and labour market needs were taken fully into account. Indeed, what is urgently require today is the acknowledgement of the fact that the right kind of employment strategy should form the heart of the
development process itself.
Productive work is a development strategy. It reflects a universal aspiration of people everywhere and connects with their hopes to obtain productive employment in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity.
The absence of productive work is a global problem today, confronting political and business leadership worldwide, and much of our common future depends on how we in Jamaica meet this challenge. We are living in a global village and what happens in many countries today impacts us, if not in the short term, it does in one way or the other in the long term. What this means is that if growth projection slows in a developed country like the U.S.A., we are likely to feel the effect.
For developing countries like ours, which are already facing stiff hurdles in the way of notching up barely impressive growth figures, the outlook could be even bleaker with the prospect of foreign direct investment decreasing and export markets contracting. We must also not forget that the world has changed in a way which no one had considered possible since 9/11. The U.S.A., Canada, and England, countries to which our people would migrate to find employment, have all introduced new immigration policies which have made migration to those countries much more difficult. In fact, many who had been in those countries illegally are finding that before long, they will have to leave for home. In addition, there are those who have run afoul of the laws of those countries by committing crimes of one kind or the other and have been deported back to Jamaica. These persons who return in numbers are swelling our ranks of unemployed, and these are idle hands whom the devil will find work for if our society is unable or unwilling to do so.
Bandaid treatment
The picture might appear daunting when it is considered that many of our unemployed and underemployed lack the basic education level and have no skills at all. In fact, we hear on a daily basis that many of these unemployed are not trainable. The question then is what are the plans of our political parties to deal with this very serious problem, if and when they get state power? The matter of employment, productive employment, must be placed high on the political parties agenda. This is something which no amount of bandaid treatment is going to solve. And, as a country, if we fail to recognise that this is a very big problem which needs urgent attention, we are in denial.
A report coming out of the ILO (The International Labour Office) some time ago, indicated that most of the world's 1.2 billion poor people or a fifth of the world's population, are supported by 530 million family members who are employed. The report went on to say that these people are the working poor. They are engaged in low productivity, low-pay work which is inadequate to raise them and their families out of poverty. Over the next 10-15 years, another 500 million will be added to this workforce and as much as 97 per cent of the new entrants will be living in developing countries.
Behind the veil of these figures, which are bad in themselves, lies a reality which suggests that the solution will have to be qualitative as well as quantitative if this creeping scourge of unemployment and underemployment is to be tackled effectively. A word to our political parties.
Herbert Lewis is an industrial relations consultant and former president of the Jamaica Employers' Federation. He may be contacted at herblewis@cwjamaica.com
