Break the job drought

Andrew Wheatley,  Guest Columnist

Following the South Central St Catherine constituency conference which I convened this past Sunday, I feel compelled to share with the wider public some of the observations I made in addressing my constituents.

The conference took place against a backdrop of chronic unemployment, especially among the nation's youth; unprecedented levels of social despondence and hopelessness; and the unrelenting crime monster. Shocking it is that just 13 days into the new year, some 32 lives had been snuffed out.

We cannot disregard the many compelling studies that show a very strong positive correlation between high levels of crime and high levels of unemployment and an overall lack of economic opportunities. No well-thinking person can deny that the levels of crime and social disorder in this country are not heavily influenced by extreme economic and social hardship.

socio-economic problems

Where there is significant breakdown in family life, a lack of economic opportunities, limited access to education, and inadequate social intervention, criminality is likely to flourish.

If the Statistical Institute's most recent labour market survey is anything to go by, there is little doubt that at an unemployment rate of just about 40 per cent among the 17-35 age group, we are courting disaster.

The much-touted Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme, better known as JEEP, has delivered significantly less than it promised. Those who supported the Government with their votes following promises of jobs and other economic sweeteners have quickly come to realise that they have been given a 6 for a 9. Instead of jobs and economic progress, they are now engulfed by hopelessness and despair. It is this disappointment that is perhaps contributing to the revolting incidence of crime.

educated yet jobless

I have to interact daily with constituents and their dependents who are now teetering at the brink. Many have attended universities or have invested in other education programmes and are now certified, but unable to find jobs.

Of those who are currently employed, there is a growing cohort of working poor who feel just as hopeless because they have to spend so much more on basic amenities, while receiving little or no increase in their earnings. Not to be left out are those being laid off or otherwise displaced because of poor economic performance and the contraction in business volume being suffered by their employers.

For our part, we in the Opposition have put on the table at least one ready-to-implement solution. The fast-tracking of development approvals stands to have such a catalytic effect on the construction sector that it would immediately put hundreds of our people, many of whom are low-skilled, to work.

It is time the Government puts its shoulders to the wheel and engage in the kind of policy engineering that will give us the impetus to do more as elected representatives for the people we serve. A programme of austerity will enable us to manoeuvre the fiscal accounts, but it will not generate the levels of growth we need so desperately at this time.

Dr Andrew Wheatley, MP, is opposition spokesman on science, ICT, digital society development and the environment. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.

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