Full Employment within Reach – PM

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, is confident that Jamaica can attain full employment based on the growth in job-creating projects, which has boosted employment, leading to record declines in the unemployment rate.

Unemployment has been trading downwards, reaching a low of 9.6 per cent as at January 2018, and there have been significant investment and development interests, particularly in the areas of business process outsourcing (BPO), tourism and hospitality, mining, and construction.

“Full employment is within our reach,” the Prime Minister said, while addressing Tuesday’s (May 1) launch of activities marking Workers’ Week and Labour Day 2018, at the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM).

Mr. Holness said the Administration welcomes the steady lowering in unemployment, noting that “we are going to tackle that even further by ensuring that those who are unemployed by virtue of not having the skills… that we get them up to the level of training, we develop their work attitudes and get them in a frame of mind where they understand that they have productive value to contribute”.

This, he pointed out, is being embarked on through the Housing, Opportunity, Production and Employment (HOPE) programme and the HEART Trust/NTA.

“Once this is done, we will not only see the continued improvement in our employment statistics but we will also see the improvement in economic growth. I think Jamaica is on a good path,” Mr. Holness added.

Activities for Workers’ Week and Labour Day will be observed under the theme ‘Ramp it Up… Fix it Up’.

The focus will be on building ramps and other facilities at schools and health centres that enable easy access to these buildings for persons with disabilities.

Labour Day will be observed on Wednesday, May 23.