Soon persons can expect more tactical responses to unemployment that will yield better results. Information on the labor market helps to provide key insights and information to craft better policies for Government and other intervention. Earlier in the year the Government through the Ministry of Finance launched a Labour Force Survey, The International Labour Organization in collaboration with the Ministry of Social Protection and the National Bureau of Statistics conducted training as it relates to the Theory and Computation of the Labour Force Data for the production of Key Labour Force Indicators at the Herdmanston Lodge during the week 23rd October 2017 – 27th October 2017.
The training was facilitated by ILO Labour Market Specialists, Mr. Diego Rei and Mr.David Glejberman. The ILO along with other international partners are already assisting with the Labour Market Survey. Together with the input on a number of technical aspects of the questionnaire, and as a complement to the training on informality indicators (held in January 2017) the organization is now carrying out an additional training activity aimed at presenting the main theoretical implications and international labour standards regarding labour market indicators. The training had a two tiered approach that focused on both theory and practice. It has combined elements concerning the computation and interpretation of indicators belonging to the Caribbean Labour Market Information System (CLMIS) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The training focused on areas such as the labour force participation rate, employment to population ratio, informal employment rate, time related underemployment, the unemployment rate, the proportion of the population covered by Social Protection, the proportion of women in managerial positions and the proportion of youth aged 15-24 not in education, work or training among many other indicators.
While speaking about the survey, the Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan, said “Diagnosing the needs of sectors, regions, and the problems faced by our people requires more than mere intuition and good intentions. We must identify the data needs, collect the data, and use the data to drive a performance budgeting approach to development. Only then will we know whether our programmes are failing or succeeding. Only then can we hold ourselves accountable.”
The training is expected to boost the capacity of the statistical division of the Ministry of Social Protection.