The head of the Job Bank Dr Leachim Semaj says Jamaica lacks the manpower planning capabilities to effectively prepare its labour force.

He was reacting to the latest findings of the 2012 Labour Force Survey published in today’s Sunday Gleaner, which shows that although unemployment has been rising, there are over 100,000 job opportunities available to job seekers. However, the report states that many unemployed persons are not trained to fill the vacancies.

According to Dr Semaj, the island has more than 60 tertiary education institutions which have not been creating degree programmes to match the needs of the society.

He says this is in spite of the fact that global projections indicate that by 2030, more than two billion of the world’s jobs will no longer exist.

Dr Semaj adds that the country’s brightest minds are being shunted into traditional career paths such as law and medicine, when they should be encouraged to establish businesses.