BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – A reassessment of the valuation of unpaid care and greater inclusion of and engagement with underrepresented groups including women, youth, the disabled, and indigenous persons, are urgent imperatives for optimising the Caribbean’s labour force which could be imperilled by the region’s rapid pace of population ageing.
The dilemma was highlighted during “Employment Equity: Promoting Inclusion in Caribbean Labour Markets,” a recent forum organised by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB). The event turned the spotlight on longstanding inequalities affecting vulnerable groups in the region’s labour market while broadening the discourse on policies to promote more equitable participation. Discussions encompassed a wide range of issues, including education and training, gender equality, digitalisation, and good governance.
CDB statistician, Dindial Ramrattan, joint coordinator of a Labour Market Differentials study commissioned by the bank, presented critical findings on disparities in the job market based on gender, age, disability, and indigeneity.
“There are more men than women participating in the regional labour force, but we must recontextualise how we measure labour force participation – unpaid care work to support families is vital and should be included in economic evaluations,” he stated.
Ramrattan also cited the Caribbean’s demographic challenges, noting that while the region is home to some of the fastest-ageing societies in the developing world, it is also affected by high youth unemployment.
“As our working populations narrow, we must address how we achieve suitable labour market adjustments. We need to focus on training and engaging disconnected communities, including Indigenous groups and persons with disabilities, to optimise our existing labour force,” he advised.
Dr Halima DeShong, head of the Institute for Gender and Development Studies at The University of the West Indies (UWI), also spoke of the significance of unpaid care work and the structural assumptions that underpin Caribbean economies.
“As we think about equity, justice and equality in employment, we have to link it to larger structural and historical conditions,” she said. “If we treat the labour market only as the public paid labour market, then we’re missing the unpaid care labour that underwrites economies. We have to find a reasonable way of being intentional in our creation of policies and actions.”
The senior UWI Lecturer also highlighted the importance of considering intersectional inequities. “We need to make sure that when we’re talking about women, that includes talking about women with disabilities; when we are talking about youth, we are talking about rural youth; when we’re talking about Indigenous People, we are talking about differently located Indigenous people.”
The necessity of levelling the playing field for access to opportunities was also stressed by Oscar Calvo-Gonzalez, regional director for Economics, Finance, and Investment for the LAC region at the World Bank.
“This requires that first, we need to work on the human capital. We need to build on the skills of everyone, and we also need to work on what we call agency, or voice, which is the ability to actually make use of opportunities,” he emphasised.
Vincent Dale, director-general for Labour Market, Education, and Socioeconomic Wellbeing at Statistics Canada, shared his experience working on diversity and inclusion issues in a Canadian context. He discussed the government’s Disaggregated Data Action Plan, which is oriented around collecting statistics at the lowest possible level; carrying out intersectional analysis of those statistics, and driving the connection between statistics and decision-making.
He also discussed the recent development of a Quality-of-Life Framework, which recognises that policymaking should be driven not only by economic indicators but also by aspects of socioeconomic well-being.
“What that has meant within the Labour Market Information Programme is much greater emphasis on not just the quantity of employment, but the quality of employment,” he said: “which includes aspects like job security and access to training and development in the workplace.”
“Employment Equity: Promoting Inclusion in Caribbean Labour Markets”, was one of several knowledge-sharing seminars included on the agenda of the CDB’s recently concluded 54th Annual Meeting which was held from June 17 – 20, 2024 in Ottawa, Canada. Similar events explored the impact of the Caribbean’s cultural industries on Development and the need to improve regional logistics to accelerate trade and drive economic growth.
