Whither the jobs?

Jamaica's tourism and agriculture ministers will have no honeymoon as analysts have highlighted both sectors as having the most potential to fulfill the country's call for jobs, jobs, jobs.

Former prime minister, Edward Seaga, who is now chancellor of the University of Technology, believes agriculture and tourism are the sectors pregnant with the promise of delivering the most jobs.

Seaga notes that while he cannot say which sector the Portia Simpson Miller-led government will seek to mobilise to deliver on the promise of employment, he believes the country can bank on agriculture and tourism.

"The economics of these two sectors tells us that they have a better ratio in job creation so that less investment can give you more jobs than in other sectors where investment is high, but jobs are low," reasoned Seaga, who is also a distinguished fellow at the University of the West Indies (UWI).

However, the former prime minister, who served between 1980 and 1989, believes that investing in a skilled populace is the ultimate answer to Jamaica's unemployment question.

"The least developed sector is human resources. It will not develop jobs immediately but in the longer term it will produce the jobs," said Seaga, who added that creating skilled personnel would have a multiplier effect because those persons would, in turn, create jobs for others.

Dennis Morrison, economist, believes that a focus on tourism and agriculture can produce the goods needed to reduce the country's unemployment numbers.

"Tourism is among the leading ones. There is the ICT (information and communication technology) sector, and then there are the energy projects," he said.

Morrison pointed out that the Government has substantial funds available for energy-conservation projects. "It has money to lend for these conservation measures, but it needs to do a good job of public awareness," the economist said.

He, however, cautioned that "the Government is not directly the driver or engine of jobs".

He said, however, that Government could affect job creation by implementing investment-friendly policies within a conducive bureaucracy.

Dr Damien King, senior lecturer and chair in the Department of Economics at the UWI, also believes the mantra of the Government creating jobs, jobs, jobs is a fallacious approach. "It is wrong, wrong, wrong. What you need is growth, growth, growth. What you need is a focus on the economic environment, and the jobs will come," he opined.

King added that "the whole sectoral focus" was off base.

He said the new Government must implement far-reaching tax reform, which would encourage people to start ventures in areas that would create the most wealth.

"A lot of the economic problems are brought about because the Government focuses on a sector and not on creating a broad conducive environment for wealth creation," King reasoned.

tyrone.reid@gleanerjm.com