Grads feel pressure - Former PM raises concern over low wages in tough job market after university
Published:Tuesday | January 29, 2019 | 12:00 AM
Former Prime Minister Bruce Golding says he is puzzled as to how recent university graduates manage to stay afloat financially, given what he describes as the mind-blowingly low wages they are pocketing each month.
Golding, who was speaking last night at a meeting of the Rotary Club of Kingston and Port Royal at the Eden Gardens Wellness Resort & Spa in New Kingston, said a tracer study carried out by The University of the West Indies (UWI) showed that of the 2,495 graduates of the Class of 2014, some 24 per cent were not in jobs. Eight per cent were doing advanced degrees and a small percentage could not be employed for other reasons.
“But significantly, twelve and a half per cent of those who responded to the survey couldn’t find a job or could not find a job that was commensurate with their academic achievement,” the former prime minister pointed out.
He said 485 people responded to the survey.
According to Golding, the UWI tracer study shows that 25 per cent of the graduating class was earning less than $50,000.
He said two-thirds of them were earning less than $100,000 per month.
“I saw in the papers recently where delinquencies at the Students’ Loan Bureau have jumped up to something like $11 billion. I don’t know how much of that is due to weak administration, but I suspect that a part of the reason for that is if you are earning $50,000 a month or $100,000 a month, paying back your student loan is going to have difficulty competing with other priorities like food … .
“I don’t know how a university graduate manages to buy a house,” he reflected, mentioning that he got married at 24 and was able to own a house by age 29.
Golding argued that the prevailing low-wage crisis was worrying to him, as it is one of the primary reasons tertiary graduates are fleeing the country.
He also pointed out that part of the problem lies with students’ decisions to choose programmes that are not in demand or futuristic.
“Part of the problem I find that relates to both the problem of the level of employment as well as the kind of remuneration that they get has to do with the question of ‘What are we training them to do?’
“What I find from those students at the UWI that I have interacted with, … it does not seem to me that their course choices are being guided by their own ability to get some information on what is the best thing to do,” Golding said.
The former prime minister said there continue to be prejudices towards certain professions, leading some students to pursue degrees that won’t benefit them in the long run.
He mentioned that he has seen studies which suggest that millions of traditional jobs might be wiped out by 2030 because of the advancement of artificial intelligence.
To that end, he has urged that the authorities begin to look at ways to respond.
“We need to start looking now to see what impact is this mind-boggling change in technology going to have on employment prospects in Jamaica … . What does it mean for our young people? ... What does it mean for our training institutions, and what it is that they have to do to adopt so that they can respond to this change?”