The Cayman Islands Chamber of Commerce has blasted government for its “shortcomings” in addressing unemployment on the islands, saying there was a lack of a clear plan for tackling the issue.
Workforce Opportunities and Residency Cayman (WORC) came under particular criticism from the business network.
“While government strategies such as the Strategic Policy Statements (SPS) mention full employment as a priority, there is a lack of a clear and actionable plan to achieve this,” said Chamber of Commerce CEO Wil Pineau in an opinion piece published last Friday.
“Inefficiencies, including low acceptance rates, unclear targets, and inadequate data collection, plague WORC’s existing programme.”
Government’s unemployment strategy has come under fire since the June publication of a report, ‘Improving the Employment Prospects for Caymanians’ by the Office of the Auditor General (OAG), which criticised some aspects of the department’s performance.
The chamber, which has more than 600 members with a workforce of around 20,000, went further in its criticism. It urgently called for stronger leadership within WORC, the creation of a national employment policy, a more co-ordinated effort between government and business, and greater accountability and performance monitoring for WORC and other relevant bodies. It also called for a revamp of the JobsCayman portal, which it singled out for “a lack of user-friendliness and poor progress assessment”.
Pineau had recommendations for the private sector as well, including more apprenticeships and better engagement with schools. He also encouraged a comprehensive revision of the minimum wage.
“A wage more in line with the cost of living could make jobs in tourism and retail more attractive to Caymanians, reducing the reliance on expatriate labour,” Pineau said. “A higher minimum wage could increase employee satisfaction, reduce turnover, and improve productivity, ultimately benefiting businesses.”
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