2 September 2019
A new draft Labour Market Strategy (LMS) has been developed for St Helena and is out for public consultation from today, Monday 2 September, until Friday, 11 October 2019.
The draft LMS is organised around three key goals:
- Resolving inequities, both real and perceived, in St Helena’s labour market
- Increasing the working age population on St Helena and
- Preparing the workforce to meet the vision laid out in the Sustainable Economic Development Plan.
The draft LMS was developed based on early meetings with the Chamber of Commerce and students at Prince Andrew School, individual consultations and a workshop attended by Elected Members, SHG Officials and representatives from the private sector. The programmes and policies proposed in the draft LMS were designed in response to specific concerns raised in these discussions.
SHG Senior Economist, Amanda Curry Brown, said:
“I am so grateful to everyone across the Island who was willing to share their experiences and whose brilliant ideas informed the draft Labour Market Strategy. The story of St Helena’s labour market right now is one of extremes: businesses in certain sectors struggle to find workers while workers in other sectors struggle to find jobs, there is a wide range of opinions about the role of immigration in building the workforce and both traditional industries and new technologies provide opportunities for economic growth. Policies and programmes must be carefully designed to meet the needs of the largest number of St Helenians and I hope the draft Strategy provides a good starting point for tackling these important challenges.”
Chairperson of the Economic Development Committee, Councillor Lawson Henry, added:
“I am very encouraged with the result of this important piece of work on our draft Labour Market Strategy as it brings together how fragile the Island’s labour market really is and the challenges we face with labour shortages, an aging population and shrinking tax base. The Labour Market Strategy also underpins a number of other policies and is likely to require possible interventions by SHG if we are going to achieve some or indeed all of the goals in our Ten Year Plan.
“I wish to commend the work already undertaken by our Senior Economist, Amanda Curry Brown, in putting together the draft Labour Market Strategy and I would like to encourage the key sectors to take part in the consultation process.”
The draft LMS is available on the Publications page of the SHG website: https://www.sainthelena.gov.sh/publications/. Hard copies will also be available at the Public Library and Customer Service Centre in Jamestown.
The Economic Development Committee will hold consultation meetings for all members of the public on Monday, 9 September, at the Half Tree Hollow Community Centre and on Wednesday, 11 September, at the Harford Community Centre. A public consultation meeting for employers will take place on Tuesday, 24 September, at the Jamestown Community Centre. All three meetings will start at 7pm.
Alternatively, you can share your opinions by completing a short online questionnaire via: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/VYQ5PR8.
If you prefer to respond to the consultation by email, please contact the Senior Economist via: Amanda.Brown@sainthelena.gov.sh by Friday, 11 October 2019.
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SHG
2 September 2019