Statistics reveal job retention low

Jul 13, 2010 News

– 90 per cent of labour force doesn’t have an education above secondary level

By Rabindra Rooplall
Last year, 251 questionnaires were classified by sectors of which 90 per cent originated from the Private Sector, six percent Public Sector and four percent Para-Public Sector. This is according to the Statistical Unit, Ministry of Labour Human Services and Social Security.
According to the Statistical Unit, the survey targeted 540 establishments. Of this amount, 251 establishments in eight regions responded, giving a response rate of 47 per cent. The establishments had 9,263 employees consisting of 4,952 men and 4,311 women. A total of 227 private organisations, 13 Public institutions and 11 Para-public institutions were sampled.
It was revealed that approximately 58 percent of the workforce is on the job between one and four years. This indicates a serious problem with retaining workers. Therefore, intensive efforts are needed for workers, while providing reasonable compensation packages or conditions of services.
Data further indicate that 20 percent of the workforce is stable. However, 10 percent of the workforce has 10-14 years of service, while 10 percent has more than 15 years on the job.
Statistics further revealed more than 90 percent of the labour force does not have an education above secondary level, and since the quality of education relates to quality of service, there is need to improve academic abilities of workers, hence, the need for persons to attain higher education.
This issue has to be addressed in order to have a more competitive economy in light of Guyana’s recent ranking at 97 on an index of 198 in terms of having competitive economies, the investigators stated.
Job categories such as Accountancy, Drug Manufacturing and Commercial Banking, just to name a few, attracted the largest number of employees and higher salaries, while a significant number of persons preferred to work in the heavy-duty machinery working environment on the basis of receiving high salaries. This resulted in increased demand for training in the latter jobs.
The educational attainment level of the 2246 persons who were sampled from the 9263 respondents indicates that 29 percent gained primary education, 52 percent completed secondary school education, nine percent obtained technical education, eight percent achieved a tertiary level education and two percent did not indicate. Thus, tertiary and technical levels account for 17 percent.
More men than women have been consistently noted in the total samples from these three years. Men outnumbered women at primary and technical levels and for those not stated for the three years. The exception to this trend was 2009 where women attained higher numbers at secondary level and 2008 when there were more women than men with a tertiary education.
For 2009, technical and tertiary percentages declined relatively compared to previous years, while two percent of the academic levels were not indicated.
Based on the test , Indo-Guyanese seem to prefer jobs in sawmilling, beverage retail, textile retail, motor vehicle repair, quarrying, rice milling, and furniture manufacturing, while Afro- Guyanese seem to prefer jobs in hotels and restaurants, household items retail, telecommunication, postal services, security among others.
According to data, women seem to be maintaining a substantial share of the working population; even working to reduce the male- female gap in some instances. While 218 organisations in 2007 employed 9753 workers, in 2009, 251 organisations utilised 9263 employees.
This could indicate that more proportionately smaller firms were used in the 2009 survey or that employers seem to be managing with relatively less staff. Data show consistent increase in both categories and total for 2009 relative to the previous years, despite being below the figures for 2007.
The Guyana Occupational Wages and Hours of Work Survey (OWHWS) is an Annual Publication of the Statistical Unit of the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security. It provides vital occupational hours and wages and salaries statistics which are collected from businesses, government institutions, trade unions and private organisations among others.

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