The Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) on Monday red-flagged the country’s output of skilled workers as a looming crisis that may trigger faster increases in the price of goods and services.

Governor of the BOJ, Brian Wynter, who was speaking at the bank’s quarterly press briefing, noted that while the bank is encouraged by the employment results in the Statistical Institute of Jamaica October release, it also presents some issues for further policy debate as the country could exceed capacity limits in terms of skilled labour over the next two years.

Jamaica added 29,200 net new jobs over the year to July 2017. Unemployment rate declined to 11.3 per cent, down 1.6 percentage points from a year earlier.

“This represents the lowest unemployment rate since July 2009 and suggests that employment is growing faster than the labour force,” Wynter said. “While these numbers are heartening, they also suggest that Jamaica is beginning to approach its capacity limits in terms of skilled labour. It is therefore critical for the country to increase the pool of skilled workers,” he warned.

He said the country cannot only look to fill this gap from the unemployed segment of the labour force, but must also look to improving the quality of jobs.

“We are not saying that we are there yet, but we are beginning to approach that time. With 11.3 per cent unemployment there is still some room to grow. We have people who need to be employed; we can also go further up the value chain so I think there is quite a lot that we have to do still before we run into the obstacle, however, because it takes time to develop skills and you need to be investing ahead of that time. Indeed, government policy is to do just that through various skills trade,” he reasoned.

The BOJ governor said the finance and the public service minister’s approval for a continuous medium-term inflation target for the bank of four per cent to six per cent puts the BOJ in a position to influence activities over the next two years, instead of the customary annual fiscal year inflation target.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/business-observer/we-need-more-skilled-workers-8212-boj_118415