More Persons Benefit from Overseas Employment Programme

There was an upward movement in the overall number of persons participating in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security Overseas Employment Programme in 2021, by 24.8 per cent to 16,019, compared with 2020.

Some 12,839 persons participated in the programme in 2020.

This is contained in the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) Economic and Social Survey Jamaica, 2021.

The Ministry, through its Overseas Employment Programme, places qualified Jamaicans in employment in the United States of America (USA) and Canada.

Included are the US Farm; the US Hospitality; the Canadian Farm, and Factory Workers; the Canadian Skilled Worker/Hospitality; and the Canadian Low Skilled Worker programmes.

The report noted that total participants in both US programmes increased by 21.2 per cent to 6,331 persons.

“Employment in the US Hospitality programme increased by 909 persons. This was driven by an increase of 517 in female participants. The number of participants in the US Farm programme also increased by 4.3 per cent to 4,769,” the document said.

“Improvements were also seen across all the Canadian programmes, which grew by 27.2 per cent to a total of 9,688 participants. The majority of participants (92.2 per cent) was employed on the Canadian Farm and Factory Workers programme, which recorded a 28.5 per cent increase in participants to 8,929,” the report added.

Additionally, the number of workers engaged in the Canadian Low Skilled Worker programme expanded by 14.0 per cent to 759. Similar to the previous year, there were no participants in the Canadian Skilled Worker/Hospitality programme.

The report also noted that females recorded an increase of 83.5 per cent in the Overseas Employment Programme relative to males who registered a growth of 20.6 per cent.

“Despite this, the Overseas Employment Programme continued to be male-dominated, with males accounting for 90.2 cent of participants. Males also comprised the majority of participants in the US Farm (98.7 per cent), the Canadian Farm and Factory Workers (93.7 per cent) and the Canadian Low Skilled (89.3 per cent) programmes. Females however, dominated the US Hospitality programme (55.5 per cent),” the report stated.

In addition to the Ministry-operated labour migration programmes, private employment agencies facilitate the placement of Jamaicans in employment overseas.
These private operators are regulated by the Ministry under the Employment Agencies Regulation Act, 1957.

“In 2021, a total of 4,117 persons were placed in overseas employment by private agencies. Females accounted for 52.7 per cent of private placements. The majority of persons was placed through the H2B programme (1,885) followed by local placements (1,433), J18 (699) and Cruise Ship programmes (100),” the report stated.