Two hundred or so young people are leaving school any day now. Many are well qualified and need work. They are entering a dim job market.
Employment prospects for this 2018/2019 are as bleak as they have been for many years. Tourism is crippled with the loss of room capacity following the passage of hurricane Irma and some resorts such as Malliouhana and Cap Juluca are not opened. Many persons who were gainfully employed in such hotels are sitting at home or doing odd jobs to make ends meet. Unlike school leavers they have huge family and financial commitments that could go under if good opportunities don’t come along soon.
A new hurricane season is days away with some predicting it could be as busy as last season. Indeed, subtropical storm Alberto kick-started the show by striking the southern US and is being blamed for about 1 billion US dollars of lost revenue and damages as well as two deaths. Our court house and police station, critical institutions in this country, still don’t have galvanized sheets on their roofs since hurricane Irma.
This island has persons with home mortgages, business overdrafts and loans, outstanding taxes, car payments and dependent students overseas which require a good steady cash flow. Unemployment is prevalent but so is underemployment. For the first time in decades I have seen so many Anguillians with good CSEC and CAPE subjects competing for jobs that would usually be done by some with fewer qualifications. Decades ago such young graduates would be teaching or at least in other areas of the civil service pending scholarship or other ways to go off and study in college.
Self employed persons are not doing much better in any case. As there are fewer dollars circulating there is a drop in business. I have no doubt that some businesses will shut down soon if this situation continues for a few more months. Banks and other lending institutions are unlikely to risk extending new loans or lines of credit to establishments deep in the red. All the years of hard work for so many entrepreneurs, the wealth they accumulated, could be a faded page in history.
Jobs are needed here and now to stem migration to the UK or other large markets which have significant unemployment issues of their own. It will ensure our population grows and retains the talent that we trained and nurtured. Jobs here mean that families can remain intact and skills passed seamlessly from one generation to the next.
The UK government is keen on fiscal discipline, something which is less familiar to us in this land. This country has been advised for many years to trim its workforce but this is easier said than done. Job loss in the public sector will not be compensated by growth in the private sector any time soon.
Anguilla needs to consider maximizing resource industrialization in areas that are underperforming and peg them to internal markets as well as export markets. It is sad and ominous that we cannot negotiate with friendly governments in Dutch and French St. Martin to resume large scale fish exports as in days gone by. Our failure to use ice and other hygienic practices brought concerns and prohibitions on the entire industry. We have hundreds of miles of exclusive fishing zone north of us that if coupled to fish processing, marketing and shipping could create hundreds of jobs for men and women.
Our fishing grounds are no doubt still pirated by foreign vessels taking what is rightfully our resource. Increased patrol of these waters against unlicensed fishing vessels, ships that pollute our waters and drug traffickers would create new jobs. It would pay for itself if the fishing industry is optimized as well as by fines and resale of illicit vessels seized.
We should create a school lunch program in which our local fish, no doubt some of the best in the world, is a big part of the menu. Thousands of varied fish meals would be served monthly supplied by contracted fishermen. Similarly, poultry and livestock farmers will have access to this market and further stimulate job growth in this field. This could offset the huge import bill of fish, chicken and meats of Anguilla.
Our prisoners, patients in hospital and residents of senior citizen homes should be eating locally grown crops, fish and meat meals. The number of persons needed to be employed in preparing and serving these meals would be significant. It would also ensure a high standard of nutrition is consumed by our school children, inmates, patients and aged. It should be done along business lines to build a wealthy state not a welfare state.
Anguilla should send delegates to Cuba and Guyana to negotiate full or partial scholarships in Medicine and Pharmacy respectively as well as other areas so we are well prepared for future jobs in Anguilla, St. Maarten and elsewhere. Doctors trained in Latin America have good jobs in St. Maarten so why can’t we plan for such opportunity in years to come. St. Maarten is like home to many of us.
This is far more constructive than sending public sector staff to the Dominican Republic to check out gambling operations that want to do business here. No lottery is coming to this country to lose money but instead could repatriate our scarce hard earned dollars.
Marijuana joints are best left out of our lives unless needed for medicinal purposes. Alcohol and Tobacco are causing far worse damage. We should do all we can to stay away from intoxicants and instead ready ourselves for the job market.
Jobs not joints will build a better economic and healthy future for the currently unemployed, underemployed and the graduating classes of 2018.
– Contributed
(Published without editing by The Anguillian newspaper.)
