Chief Technical Director in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, Audrey Deer-Williams, has called on senior citizens to remain active, engaged, and purposeful as the nation celebrates Senior Citizens’ Month. Speaking at the National Senior Citizens’ Month Church Service, held on Sunday (September 7) at the Calvary Baptist Church in St. James, she paid tribute to the island’s seniors...

Persons with disabilities now have easier access to government services and learning materials through a mobile application developed with support from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Jamaica. The ‘I Am Able – My JCPD’ app, developed in partnership with the Jamaica Council for Persons with Disabilities (JCPD), enables persons with disabilities to access routine services such as registration, grant...

State Minister in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, Dr. the Hon. Norman Dunn, has underscored the value and resilience of the elderly population. At the launch of Senior Citizens Month 2025 (September), at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston on August 29, Dr. Dunn described senior citizens as “living national treasures, the steadfast pillars on whom Jamaica's...

The Government’s Solidarity Programme, which is targeting 50,000 vulnerable Jamaicans for a cash grant of $20,000, is being used to bring these persons inside the safety net of social protection. Speaking with JIS News during the first Solidarity Live Community Engagement session at the Port Maria Anglican Church Hall in St. Mary on August 21, Director of Social Security in...

Minister of Labour and Social Security, Hon. Pearnel Charles Jr., says bridging Jamaica’s productivity gap is critical to safeguarding the nation’s future. Addressing the recent launch of three Jamaica Productivity Centre (JPC) toolkits at the Terra Nova All-Suite Hotel in St. Andrew, Mr. Charles emphasised that “all of us have to choose efficiency. We have to choose to be productive;...

A total of 1,232 jobseekers were placed in local employment through the Ministry of Labour and Social Security’s Electronic Labour Exchange (ELE) in 2024. The ELE operates a job-matching system that links prospective employers with employees through a web-based medium. According to the Economic and Social Survey Jamaica (ESSJ), 2024, male placements increased by 16.3 per cent to 400, while...

The Ministry of Labour and Social Security has been undertaking a pilot of the digital platform Gov Payout, which will be used to facilitate payments under the $1-billion Solidarity Programme. “We have been doing the pilot for about three to four weeks. We've been able to amend and fix and revise and go through a lot of the testing where...