EDITORIAL: Unemployment jitters around the world

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) is predicting that global unemployment will soar to 213 million this year. In a gloomy assessment this week, the agency says it expects social unrest will spread beyond the 25 countries that have so far seen angry job seekers turn violent.

In this global labour market recession, it is estimated that 14 million jobs are being sought in rich countries while eight million people in developing nations are out of work. Already, we have seen our teachers, nurses, and other health-care workers stage angry street protests over wages and conditions of employment.

Jobs have been disappearing in Jamaica, too. According to economic theory, accelerated government spending is critical to shortening economic downturn and stimulating recovery. However, Jamaica Labour Party campaign promises of jobs remain dramatically unfulfilled. Instead, jobs have been disappearing because of the faltering economy, and even persons with tertiary-level qualifications are finding the going tough. Our borrowing arrangement with the International Monetary Fund came with stinging austerity measures to contain government spending. So rather than expanding, government has contracted.

With the civil service not actively recruiting new entrants, job seekers are turning to the private sector for opportunities. Saddled with high capital and operational costs and discouraged by too few incentives, the productive sector has remained stubbornly sluggish.

jobless youths

More depressing is the fact that young people are disproportionately hit by unemployment. It is estimated that 26 per cent of CARICOM youth are jobless. What good can come of any economy when a sizeable chunk of young people are unemployed? Meanwhile, the murder rate within CARICOM is reported to be 30 per 100,000, the highest of any other region in the world. The nexus between joblessness, poverty, and youth crime is clear.

This joblessness has created a new class of needy in Jamaica. These include retirees who are living longer but are barely able to eke out an existence, students who scrape together tuition fees and forage for meals from day to day, and others who do not earn enough to keep their families in conditions of the most rudimentary decency.

When help is not forthcoming, it is inevitable that some of these jobless persons will venture into the risky underground economy, such as lottery scams, drug smuggling, and other forms of criminality. Where, one may ask, is the silver lining to these very dark clouds? And what will it take to cure this dependence syndrome which is emerging in many communities across the country?

To find our way on the road to productivity and competitiveness, the Government and all stakeholders, including the investment agencies, must bring their collective financial muscles to find initiatives to attract foreign capital and get us back into production, so there can be real improvements to the misery of thousands of jobless people.

The administration must turn on the stimulus tap, crank up the engines, and demonstrate to us that it has viable options to stimulate growth. It is imperative to get Jamaica moving again, for the alternative is an ugly one.