Metry Seaga, president of the Private Sector Organization of Jamaica (PSOJ), is advocating for the importation of skilled labour as a short-term solution to meet current demands in the local job market.

Seaga, who was speaking at a press conference at the PSOJ headquarters on Thursday (February 15), said addressing Jamaica’s skills labour gap is crucial to boosting the country’s productivity level which has been on the decline.

“Jamaica has the lowest labour productivity compared to the other Caribbean countries over the last two decades. Jamaica has had weak and declining productivity levels. Jamaica’s total factor productivity per worker also logs significantly behind most other countries in Latin America and Caribbean,” Seaga said.

The PSOJ’s president added that: “Jamaica’s skills gap is crucial to the substantial emigration of highly trained professionals. It is important to note that over recent decades nearly a million Jamaicans have relocated with over 80 per cent of tertiary-educated expatriates trained domestically, which means eight out of ten people that we train go away and produce for other economies. This is hurting us badly.”

He says the PSOJ support the review of Jamaica’s work permit system which he described as lengthy, costly and bureaucratic hindering the importation of labour.

Seaga says the PSOJ will be partnering with the Ministry of Local Government to create an efficient system for businesses to apply for work permits.

“Some may say how can we be advocating for the importation of workers? We are but it is a short-term solution. From a private sector perspective, the importation of labour is short-term and not a catch-all solution, especially in sectors vital for Jamaica’s economic growth.

“It is most effective as a targeted temporary measure rather than long-term dependence promoting knowledge transfer and leveraging the skills of foreign workers, benefits the domestic economy, transforming a temporary fix into a lasting advantage. We want people to come to Jamaica from overseas who have gained knowledge and experience and we want them to transfer that knowledge to our Jamaica who can then implement that in the workplace to teach Jamaicans how to do the jobs that we cannot do,” Seaga said.

He further argued that this temporary importation of labour can improve investor confidence by ensuring the required labour is attainable for projects.