Dionne Rose, Staff Reporter

Another 300 Jamaican workers will be heading to the United States to take up jobs in factories to process vegetables under the Ministry of Labour Overseas Employment Programme.

The 300 workers comprising of men and women will be leaving next month, said Donna Adams, director of Manpower Services at the ministry.

She told The Gleaner yesterday that the ministry had completed its recruitment drive in Kingston on Monday and Tuesday. Recruitment for the positions was also done in the western part of the island.

Alvin McIntosh, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Labour told The Gleaner in a previous interview that the employers would be involved in the recruitment exercise.

"It is the first time we are going to be doing vegetables in the States (U.S.) and we have to make sure that we select the most suitable persons and that the first outing is a success," said Mr. McIntosh.

Meanwhile, the permanent secretary said the ministry would be sending another 75 workers to Canada to reap mushrooms in Alberta, Canada.

Recruitment was done some three weeks ago.

Remittances

"This is something quick," he told The Gleaner, recently. "We will be pulling from a pool of persons who we have on our listing."

Last year, 14,646 workers participated in the ministry's Overseas Employment programme, more than 1,000 than in 2005. Of this number, 3,458 went to U.S. farms; 5,182 on the Hotel Programme and 5,996 to Canadian farms and factories.

The programme yielded U.S. $13.05 million in remittances last year, up from US$11.3 million in 2005.

dionne.rose@gleanerjm.com