Youth unemployment is a guessing game

Jan 04, 2014 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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We were having some drinks over the holiday season. I looked up and saw a young man approaching. I recognized him as the son of a couple I knew.
I was glad to see him. When I asked him what he was doing, he said he was not working but was looking for a job.
I then asked him what type of job. He replied that he wanted an “office” job. I then queried as to his qualifications. He said that he had five subjects at the school leaving examinations. These were not however impressive enough for him to compete with other graduates.
He made it clear that he was not interested in being a labourer. He refused to consider learning to drive so that he could hold down one of the many driving jobs that are advertised almost daily in the newspapers.
I asked him whether he would work as a sales clerk or even a cashier in one of our many stores or supermarkets. His face took on contortions that indicated to me that such work was beneath him.
The representatives from both of the two parliamentary opposition parties, the Alliance for Change (AFC) and A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) have expressed concern over youth unemployment in Guyana. But the encounter with the young man made me wonder if the problem is the lack of jobs or whether it is the shortage of clerical jobs.
National statistics on unemployment is dated and unreliable. The government often uses a proxy measure to determine the number of new jobs created. This measure, the increase in NIS registrations, is equally unreliable. An increase in NIS registrations does not necessary mean an increase in jobs; it can indicate an increase in those registering for social security. The true picture regarding employment creation remains distant.
No statistics also exist on youth unemployment. The Ministry of Labour says any pronouncement on unemployment will have to await the findings of last year’s census.
This is however not the best way of determining the state of Guyana’s labour market. What is needed is a reliable system of tracking developments in the labour market, including the number of and types of new jobs created and the rate of unemployment in the various professions.
However, in Guyana there seems to be an aversion to collecting data on an ongoing basis. This is unfortunate because collection of data will allow for better policy planning.
The absence of reliable statistics means that the true state of youth unemployment is not known. And this is all the more so when one considers that within the sugar industry, the turnout on workdays is around fifty per cent. Where are the other workers? They surely are not at home twiddling their thumbs. And how come there is not a mad rush to fill the vacancies created by half of the workforce absenting from their jobs?
The AFC has raised the issue of the economy not creating sufficient diversified jobs. But if the argument is that former sugar workers no longer want their children to engage in the laborious task of cane-cutting, then one would have expected that in alternative sectors in the economy such as the construction sector, there would have been a large reserve army, that would have pushed the price of labour downwards.
But this is far from the case. One of the main reasons why labour has to be imported in the construction sector is because of the high cost of local labour and the undependability and unproductive nature of that labour. The cost of construction work is prohibitively high. Even a painter these days is demanding in excess of six thousand dollars per day and sometimes higher. A carpenter wants the same and labourers are increasing their demands for higher pay.
In other sectors the problem is no different. If you need a domestic in the home, you will find problems in finding one and more problems in finding one that is affordable.
There are numerous opportunities for persons to work in the stores and in light manufacturing but the employees do not remain long enough on the job. Why the high turnover if jobs are so scarce?
The problem with youth unemployment therefore needs to be better assessed. It is not just a problem about numbers or the lack of clerical jobs.
Technical changes have seriously reduced the number of office jobs. Long ago an accounts department would have to have about four to five persons doing different jobs from one writing up cash book to another entering sales and expenses in journals. Today those jobs are redundant.
From the point- of-sale, computers post the various entries electronically and automatically to the journal, thereby cutting out three or four layers of jobs.
Then there is the situation whereby some persons refuse to take certain jobs. They would rather sit all day in the elements hustling a few sweets rather than take a job as a sweeper or cleaner because they look down on such employment and want to be their own boss.
But when they leave Guyana, these idiosyncrasies seem to disappear. The same persons who turn up their noses at working in a store in Guyana, go and clean toilets in foreign lands.
The job market in Guyana is therefore intrinsically complex.
To unravel this complexity requires reliable and up- to- date labour market statistics. Until such time as the data is available, the true situation as regards youth unemployment will be based on informed hunches and a guessing game.

 

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