With the country’s unemployment rate at a historic low, Prime Minister Andrew Holness has now turned his attention to the youth population who are not actively seeking jobs.

“The unemployment rate is not a fiction, it is a very good measure that we have been using for decades and we know it is an accurate measure because people who are here who are business people will tell you that they simply cannot find people to employ. They will tell you that all the time but yet there are people who are saying I am looking for a job and I can’t find a job and that is a challenge that we have in the society,” he said.

The prime minister was speaking at a town hall meeting on Thursday, August 31, in Montego Bay, St James.

“Many of them are on the street corner boring a hole in their hand middle, some of them are drawn into crime and other deviant behaviour and some of them just choose to stay home. We need you in the labour force, in the workforce in order to ensure that our economy can continue to grow. In fact, this is probably the first time in maybe four or five decades that the availability of labour could be a constraint on our growth,”

PRIME MINISTER ANDREW HOLNESS

In an effort to address the situation, Holness said that the Government has moved to appoint a minister with direct oversight of skill and digital transformation to engage and train young Jamaicans to get them into the labour force.

The prime minister believes that this strategy can also potentially assist with the country’s current crime situation.

“We are at the position where we could potentially solve the crime problem by bringing in those youngsters who are the recruit for gangs and cut off the supply to criminal activity. Yes, that is one of the strategies and this government is working towards that,” Holness said.