Jamaica taps Canadian outfit to assist in Active Labour Market Strategy

By Lincoln DePradine

The government of Jamaica, through the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, has engaged Dr. Justine Pierre, a renowned labour market and skills development consultant and Director for the Canadian Research firm of Dunn Pierre Barnett and Company Canada Ltd), to design and operationalize the country’s new “Jobs & Active Labour Market Strategy’’ under a World Bank–financed program.

The assignment aims at modernizing Jamaica’s job intermediation system; strengthening what’s known as the Electronic Labour Exchange; scaling employer-led training and apprenticeships; and improving outcomes for youth, women and vulnerable groups.

The engagement, considered part of “Active Labour Market Policies’’ or ALMPs, is important to Jamaica as one of the world’s Small Island Developing States (SIDS), Pierre told The Caribbean Camera.

“From an independent policy lens, the move is timely and strategic. Small Island Developing States, like those in the Caribbean region, face chronic vulnerabilities, concentrated economies (often tourism-heavy), exposure to external shocks, pockets of high youth unemployment, skills mismatches, and persistent informality,’’ he said.

“Active Labour Market Policies, demand-led training, apprenticeships, wage incentives, one-stop employment services, entrepreneurship support, and climate-resilient public works, are among the few instruments that directly move people into jobs, shorten unemployment spells, and help firms find the skills they need.’’

For small economies, said Pierre, “ALMPs are not optional; they are the backbone of resilience and growth. The goal is measurable results, higher job placement and retention, stronger employer satisfaction, and inclusive participation, especially for youth and women.”

When asked for a more precise description of an “Active Labour Market Policy’’, Pierre referred to an ALMP as a “demand-led set of public measures, done by the government or other organizations, that get people into work and lift productivity. This is accomplished through job-matching, short employer-designed training and apprenticeships, including time-limited hiring incentives, entrepreneurship support, and temporary jobs with public value. This is usually backed by sound data, so funding follows outcomes like placement, retention and wage gains. It can be measured”.

Caribbean countries, “where youth unemployment has remained stubbornly high in recent years, stand to benefit from precisely the kind of evidence-based, employer-anchored approach now being advanced in Jamaica’’, said Pierre, an ILO-trained Labour Market Consultant, who has spent his career working across the Caribbean, Africa, and other regions on skills audits, conducting surveys, employment policies, and labour market information systems.

Under a World Bank–backed project in Jamaica, Pierre must deliver labor market and stakeholder assessments, a national strategy, an ALMP optimization plan, implementation guidance, and lead a workshop to embed cross-sectoral reforms.

The Jamaica’s approach, if adopted by other islands of the Caribbean, “would help shorten youth unemployment duration, raise the share of Caribbean Vocational Qualification and other certified workers, improve employers’ retention of first-time hires, and expand entrepreneurship among micro-enterprises, which is key to diversifying beyond a single sector and building resilience to shocks’’, Pierre argues.

“Small labour markets cannot afford long training cycles misaligned with demand. The strategy is simple: align with employers, back it with data, and finance outcomes,’’ he added.

“For SIDS, ALMPs function as core economic infrastructure. They diversify opportunities, formalize micro-enterprise, and embed green and digital skills into the workforce, strengthening resilience to hurricanes, tourism shocks, and global downturns. Jamaica’s decision to bring in a regional expert with deep SIDS experience signals a practical model that other Caribbean countries with high unemployment, underemployment and high crime, such as Grenada, Saint Lucia and other SIDS, can tailor to their own economies.’’