| Unemployment Rate | 11% |
| Labor Force Participation Rate | 46.63% |
Data derived from the CIA World Factbook and Nationmaster.com
Most jobs in Guyana only require unskilled workers. It is a mainly agricultural and mining economy with 30.2% of the workforce in agriculture and 36.4% in industry (U.S. Department of State). The mining of bauxite and gold are the two most common and widely available jobs. There are not as many jobs requiring skilled workers in the country; however, a shortage of skilled workers in these jobs still exists. This results in frictional unemployment amongst skilled jobs. In agricultural, industrial and service oriented jobs, it is more common for a higher percentage of men to be employed. According to economist Doctor Kenneth King, a key problem causing unemployment in Guyana is that they are no longer holding their educational system to the standard it once was. This lack of education is hurting the population’s level of technological knowledge. This lack of human capital is causing structural unemployment because jobs cannot find qualified workers to fill them.
According to the U.S. Department of State, in 1999 the Guyanese government set minimum wage at $104 American per month. If workers on minimum wage receive $104 American a month, it results to about $3.47 a day during an average month. This is problematic due to the fact that some say as much as 80% of Guyana’s current population can barely if even survive on $5 American per day (baiganchoka.com). Guyana has not put any major union laws in act, but the country set the minimum working age to 15 with the Employment of Young Person and Children Act which originally went into place in 1919 and has been revised throughout the years (Cox). With the lack of unskilled workers in Guyana it is currently focusing on the restoration of its educational system by increasing funding. This in part with their minimum wage law should encourage kids to stay in school longer. In order to increase the country’s chances of gaining skilled workers an increased minimum work age would be effective. Jobs that only require unskilled workers would not suffer from unemployment because of the decline in unskilled. This is because of the fact that an abundant number of these unskilled workers already exist; therefore, a decrease in the number of newly unskilled workers would not hurt this job market.
1. "South America - Guyana." C.I.A. World Factbook. Ed. C.I.A. Web. Nov. 2009.
2. Mankiw, Gregory N. Principles of Economics. 5th ed. South-Western CENGAGE Learning, 2008. Print.
- Guyana (09/09)." U.S. Department of State. Web. Nov. 2009. < http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/1984.htm>.
- King, Kenneth. "Unemployment in Guyana." Guyana Under Siege - Aims to highlight, discuss, and offer ideas and solutions to the problems in Guyana. Web. Dec. 2009.
- Lexadin. "Legislation Guyana ()." Lexadin. Web. Dec. 2009.
- "NationMaster - Guyanese Labor statistics." NationMaster - World Statistics, Country Comparisons. Ed. Nationmaster.com. Web. Dec. 2009.
- Apsana. "Impact of Increased Cost of Living in Guyana - .com." Baiganchoka. Web. Dec. 2009.
- Cox, Eileen. "Stabroek News - The Young Persons and Children Act should be reviewed." Stabroek News - Guyana News, Sports, Businesss and Entertainment. Web. Dec. 2009.
So, in a previous blog, you mentioned that there was an abundance of skilled labor in Guyana causing a high unemployment rate. But you also mentioned that these skilled workers are beginning to leave the country for new work. What incentives have the government created to try and keep some of these skilled labor within the country?
ReplyDeleteAlso, is this a bad thing that the skilled labors are leaving if most of the jobs in Guyana only need unskilled labor?
Guyana is extremely similar to Kenya in this aspect. Kenya, like Guyana, also has less women working than men. Both countries also have subpar education systems at the moment. Guyana's work force participation rate of 46.63% is astounding! Hopefully after Guyana changes its education system this number will rise.
ReplyDeleteHas the governemnt made any changes to minimum wage? I feel that the unemployment which the minimum wage would cause could only add fuel to the problem of unemployment, which is there is more supply of unskilled work force than demand. If the country has been so hesitant to accept the idea of unions and their collective bargaining abilities, why did they decide that minimum wage was such a good idea? I feel Guyana is similar to Burundi in the fact that both countries are at the stage where it just needs the addition of some brain power. Once the human capital increases i believe both of these countries futures will be brighter.
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