Many jobless Caymanians not registered

Although more than 1,800 Caymanians remained unemployed according to the most recent labor force survey, well below half of those said to be jobless had registered with the government agency responsible for finding work for those who need employment assistance.  

National Workforce Development Agency officials said Friday that approximately 800 Caymanians were registered with the agency at last count. The number includes unemployed Caymanians, those who are considered “underemployed” – part-time workers seeking full-time jobs – and those who already have full-time work but who are seeking a new job. 

Agency representatives could not give a breakdown of how many registered job seekers were unemployed, versus how many were underemployed and how many were fully employed and seeking new work.  

According to the 2013 Labor Force Survey from the Department of Economics and Statistics, the number of unemployed Caymanians was estimated at 1,817 last fall.  

Workforce agency director Tasha Ebanks-Garcia acknowledged that the unemployment figure from the labor force survey was now a year out of date. However, she said the agency believes the government statistical survey can be relied upon for accurate unemployment numbers, and that she believes a significant number of jobless local workers simply aren’t registering.  

“Most Caymanians…are able to navigate their way through the market,” she said. “Historically, we’re not a culture that relied on the employment agencies. So this is a huge cultural shift to encourage individuals to utilize this mechanism.”  

Also, numbers of registered unemployed or partially employed with the workforce agency change frequently, Mrs. Ebanks-Garcia noted.  

“You’ll find that individuals will secure employment, but not for long, and change their status from unemployed to employed,” she said. “It is very difficult…to come up with exact numbers of what the situation is.”  

The National Workforce Development Agency has three categories into which job seekers can register, either online or in person at the agency offices at Mid-Town Plaza at the Elgin Avenue roundabout.  

The first category – job seeker – is open to anyone who is legally and ordinarily resident on the islands. Any legal worker, including non-Caymanian permanent residents, spouses of Caymanians and work permit holders, can register with the National Workforce Development Agency and view the list of jobs maintained by the agency.  

The second category – job seeker plus – is only for Caymanians. The registration process is made easier and job notifications are sent to those individuals via the workforce agency.  

The third category – job seeker extended – is for Caymanians who may require additional support, training or mentoring. Their cases can be assigned to an employment officer in the workforce agency.  

Local businesses are also encouraged to register all their positions with the workforce agency, although that is not mandatory.  

In practice, Mrs. Ebanks-Garcia said, some companies are finding work permit approvals more difficult if they don’t register jobs with the National Workforce Development Agency.  

In a number of recent cases where work permit applications have come before the Work Permit Board or Business Staffing Plan Board, the applications have been deferred because the employer did not register the job.  

Employment Minister Tara Rivers said questions from the Immigration Department to employers ask them to document what steps they have taken to hire a Caymanian, and among those can be whether they registered with the workforce agency.  

The responsibility for vetting job advertisements and approving work permits still falls to the Immigration Department, but Mrs. Ebanks-Garcia said there is more information sharing between the two agencies now, and a representative of the workforce agency attends meetings of the Work Permit Board as an adviser.  

Both Minister Rivers and her ministerial councilor, George Town MLA Winston Connolly, indicated a willingness to accept legal changes that would make government’s labor-related agencies, such as the National Workforce Development Agency and the Department of Labour and Pensions, responsible for work permit vetting and approval.  

“Immigration should be about border control, and the [workforce agency] should be the central body for employment,” Mr. Connolly said.  

Minister Rivers indicated making that change would be complex and would require a significant overhaul in immigration and labor legislation and, in the meantime, efforts still have to be made to improve the local unemployment situation. “But I think it is something that can be done,” she said.