The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

The Director of Labour yesterday said his department’s job placement success rate was “far higher” than the 2 per cent highlighted in a recent Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) report, although he admitted its tracking mechanism was “old and outdated”.

Robert Farquharson told Tribune Business there are more than 68,000 job seekers registered in the Department of Labour’s database, representing persons who would have signed on over the past 10 years.

“It’s difficult to say how many of those persons have found employment because our system is very antiquated, and it is presently being upgraded,” he told Tribune Business.

   The IDB, in a report on the planned $20 million initiative to overhaul the Bahamas’ job training and matching systems, said the Department of Labour’s ‘placement’ success rate was exceptionally low compared to the regional average.

While the Bahamas was able to find work for one out of every 50 registrants, the Latin American and Caribbean average for similar employment exchanges was a placement rate slightly greater than one in every four applicants.

The IDB also revealed that the Department of Labour was catching job vacancies from just 12 per cent of listed Bahamian businesses, adding that this ratio paled when compared to the 20-40 per cent of companies captured by European Employment Exchanges “at a similar stage of development”.

It warned that these problems meant job opportunities were not going to the most qualified and ‘best matched’ Bahamians.

They were instead being seized by “the well connected”, resulting in lower workforce productivity and a society that was far from a meritocracy.

In response, Mr Farquharson said: “What the IDB report revealed is that based on our tracking mechanism and the Department of Labour’s statistical information, only a small percentage of persons that apply are retained, but that’s primarily because the mechanism we use to track people is very old and outdated, so it’s not a true reflection of exactly how many people are retained.”

He added: “We send hundreds of persons on job interviews, and a large number are retained and employed. But only 2 per cent come back and say that they have been employed.

“We are now improving the technological aspect through the IDB to better track those persons.

“Right now we use a very manual system. However, once we upgrade our IT system we expect our tracking mechanism to be significantly improved and those numbers to significantly increase because we know for a fact more people are being employed, far more than 2 per cent.”

Calling for the Department of Labour’s Employment Exchange to “reach international best practices”, the IDB said the facility was currently well short of attaining them.

“Its limited capacity – in terms of personnel, soft and hard infrastructure, and articulation with the private sector – does not facilitate an adequate response to the demands of current and potential employers,” the report said.

“It also forces workers to search jobs through inefficient informal channels, which reinforces inequality of opportunities. Currently, the [Employment Exchange] capture vacancies of about 12 per cent of listed businesses, and places about 2 per cent of registered job-seekers.

“The strengthening of the [Employment Exchange] is thus critical in ensuring a labour intermediation system that facilitates better employment opportunities for everyone. Therefore, there is a need for institutional strengthening and modernisation of its services.”

Explaining the implications for the Bahamian workforce, economy and society, the IDB said: “In this scenario, job opportunities do not necessarily go to the better prepared or the ones that better match the vacancy, but to the well connected, lowering the quality of the matches worker-jobs, and with it, labour productivity.”

The Latin American and Caribbean job placement rate of 27.1 per cent includes the Bahamas, suggesting that other countries are even further ahead, because this nation’s 2 per cent will have dragged down the regional average.

Even Jamaica, with an 11 per cent job placement ‘success rate’, is achieving a ratio five times’ greater than the Bahamas, with one in 10 work seekers placed in positions. Barbados is even better placed, its 25.7 per cent being in line with the regional average.