Amid unexpected labour challenges in superpower countries, seemingly never-ending inflation that continues to skyrocket and an overall difficult economic period on the heels of COVID-19, monkeypox and polio outbreaks, Caribbean workers are actually in the perfect position to thrive.
This is according to Joseph Boll, CEO of Caribbean Employment Services Inc., is a market-leading digital talent acquisition service that aims to connect the top talent from the Caribbean with hiring managers, HR professionals and decision-makers in companies both within the Caribbean as well as abroad.
Boll notes that while hardship certainly has not escaped the region’s workers, related developments continue to work out to their benefit.
“Coming off what has been a challenging past few years, to say the least,” says the CEO, “this year has really been chock-full of potential for the region’s workforce. Jobs are coming back with a vengeance, and new industries are being introduced to increase resilience in the face of disaster. COVID taught us all a hard lesson when it comes to economic diversification, but it is a lesson the region’s leaders have largely hit the ground running with.”
While tourism will likely never fully end in this region, and shouldn’t, Boll notes, new industries are being expanded in tangible ways that may not have occurred so quickly had it not been for the harsh lessons of the pandemic.
Further, Boll says, “In addition to that, because of labour challenges abroad, Caribbean workers are now in high demand. This is nothing new, of course, as we’ve always had partnerships for labour exchanges. But we at Caribbean Employment Services Inc. have noted a drastic uptick in employers from the UK, US, Canada and elsewhere specifically looking to recruit Caribbean talent and even offering attractive relocation packages. The labour challenges have had an unexpected positive impact on creating more opportunities for Caribbean workers.”
Plus, to top it all off, many Caribbean nations have, over the past year, moved to either increase wages within the public or private sector, increase the national minimum wage, introduce minimum wages for the first time or indicate their intention to do so. Although the relentlessly escalating inflation rates have been a major factor spurring the move to increase wages, Boll says this is another possibly unintended impact that Caribbean workers can now benefit from.
“Bermuda, Jamaica, St. Vincent — so many of our region’s decision-makers have moved to better equip Caribbean workers with the funds to provide for themselves and their families amid the increasing prices of today,” says the CEO of the organization headquartered in Barbados. “This is another way that the region’s labour force has been coming out on top, with the promise of even better things to come.”
