[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ecr/col048/7598.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Employment, growth and reforms in Jamaica

Author

Listed:
  • Alleyne, Dillon
Abstract
Executive summary The main objective of this study on 'Growth and Employment' is to determine the ability of the Jamaican economy to generate productive employment, and how this has been affected by reforms implemented in the last 15 years. To this end, the research focuses primarily on labour demand in the formal sector and the dynamics of salaried employment, although the importance of the informal sector and supply dynamics (volume and composition of labour); will be stressed as well.The findings are as follows: Wherever there has been growth and investment there has been labour absorption and this has been to the benefit to both males and females although males seemed to have benefited more overall. This has been the case for every other major sector except for traditional manufacturing, and agriculture which seemed to have suffered in the short run as a consequence of the reforms which removed much of their protection. While investment in manufacture has risen this has not resulted in increased growth, productivity or increased employment. In addition the employment has been in the area of a better quality labour force as the share of workers with limited education has declined in this sector. It is clear that the investment has been in restructuring and retooling rather than output expansion and over time it would be possible to see the impact of these changes. There has been a considerable informalisation of the labour market as self-employed workers, part time workers, contractors and generally lower level workers have been in demand. This has been the result of a structural shift in the economy as the service sector has expanded the expense of the goods sector. In this sectoral shift, women have benefited from the growth and investment in services. Productivity however, has not risen significantly in this sector and employment has expanded at the lower and the upper end of the workforce. This weakly suggests the phenomenon of 'de-skilling' and 'up-skilling' that is simultaneously taking place.There has been a general decline in the share of part time work in the economy as measured by the number of hours worked and an increase in full time employment. There has also been a decrease in overtime employment maybe due to the new tax regime which taxes overtime work. The decline in part time work however, has benefited men more than women as the number of women in part time work has not changed significantly while for men half as much were employed in 1972 as in 1996. This is a very important finding for clearly, while the quality of labour demanded has fallen, working hours have increased which may reflect the tendency to higher returns and less polarisation over time. Wage levels have increased despite the fall in productivity and the rise in labour costs. This may reflect the impact of strong labour unions in an environment of inflation in which wage rates are based on past inflation. This has been a source of conflict however, between trade unions and employers, as employers have been opting for more part time and contract workers on less stringent and legally binding wage contracts and demanding the right to downsize without large compensation packages. There is some tension between current institutional labour arrangements and employee demands for the right to strike in some services. In particular a source of conflict has been the essential services sector which legally their is no right to strike, but workers are demanding the right to strike for better remuneration. The reduced inflation rates to as low as 8 percent in 1997 will certainly remove this source of conflict. There has been increasing industrial tensions between employers and the unions as the reform force changes at the firm and industry levels especially in areas in traditional manufacturing and garments and agro-processing. The number of strikes over remuneration have increased with its resulting impact on days lost. The ESOP scheme was seen as a way to diffuse this situation as workers would own shares in companies and companies would get tax and other incentives. This however has not been effective in a climate of restructuring and downsizing.

Suggested Citation

  • Alleyne, Dillon, 2000. "Employment, growth and reforms in Jamaica," Series Históricas 7598, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    • Handle: RePEc:ecr:col048:7598
    Note: Includes bibliography
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://repositorio.cepal.org/handle/11362/7598
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dasgupta, Partha & Ray, Debraj, 1986. "Inequality as a Determinant of Malnutrition and Unemployment: Theory," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 96(384), pages 1011-1034, December.
    2. Dornbusch, Rudiger, 1974. "Tariffs and nontraded goods," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 177-185, May.
    3. Katharine G. Abraham & Susan N. Houseman, 1994. "Does Employment Protection Inhibit Labor Market Flexibility? Lessons from Germany, France, and Belgium," NBER Chapters, in: Social Protection versus Economic Flexibility: Is There a Trade-Off?, pages 59-94, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Katsushi S. Imai & Raghav Gaiha & Ganesh Thapa & Samuel Kobina Annim, 2013. "Financial Crisis In Asia: Its Genesis, Severity And Impact On Poverty And Hunger," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(8), pages 1105-1116, November.
    2. Azariadis, Costas & Stachurski, John, 2005. "Poverty Traps," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 5, Elsevier.
    3. Mahmud, Mahreen & Riley, Emma, 2021. "Household response to an extreme shock: Evidence on the immediate impact of the Covid-19 lockdown on economic outcomes and well-being in rural Uganda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    4. Banerji, Sanjay & Gupta, Manas Ranjan, 1997. "The efficiency wage given long-run employment and concave labor constraint," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 185-195, June.
    5. Patricio S Dalton & Victor H Gonzalez Jimenez & Charles N Noussair, 2017. "Exposure to Poverty and Productivity," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(1), pages 1-19, January.
    6. Heng, Dyna, 2011. "Capital flows and real exchange rate: does financial development matter?," MPRA Paper 48553, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised May 2012.
    7. Askarov, Zohid & Doucouliagos, Hristos, 2015. "Spatial aid spillovers during transition," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 40(PA), pages 79-95.
    8. Clements, Kenneth W. & Fry, Renée, 2008. "Commodity currencies and currency commodities," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 55-73, June.
    9. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/vbu6kd1s68o6r34k5bcm3iopv is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Carmen Pagés-Serra, 2000. "The Cost of Job Security Regulation: Evidence from Latin American Labor Markets," Economía Journal, The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association - LACEA, vol. 0(Fall 2000), pages 109-154, August.
    11. Ilham Haouas & Mahmoud Yagoubi & Almas Heshmati, 2005. "The impacts of trade liberalization on employment and wages in Tunisian industries," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(4), pages 527-551.
    12. Abhijit Banerjee & Emily Breza & Esther Duflo & Cynthia Kinnan, 2019. "Can Microfinance Unlock a Poverty Trap for Some Entrepreneurs?," NBER Working Papers 26346, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Reamonn Lydon & Thomas Y. Mathä & Stephen Millard, 2019. "Short-time work in the Great Recession: firm-level evidence from 20 EU countries," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 8(1), pages 1-29, December.
    14. Dmitriy Sergeyev & Chen Lian & Yuriy Gorodnichenko, 2023. "The Economics of Financial Stress," NBER Working Papers 31285, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Juan Felipe Riaño & Felipe Valencia Caicedo, 2024. "Collateral Damage: The Legacy of the Secret War in Laos," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 134(661), pages 2101-2140.
    16. Naschold, Felix, 2012. "“The Poor Stay Poor”: Household Asset Poverty Traps in Rural Semi-Arid India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(10), pages 2033-2043.
    17. Chaudhuri, Sarbajit & Mukherjee, Ujjaini, 2002. "Removal of protectionism, foreign investment and welfare in a model of informal sector," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 101-116, January.
    18. Elias Dinopoulos & Laixun Zhao, 2007. "Child Labor and Globalization," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 25(3), pages 553-579.
    19. Guaracyane Lima Campelo & João Mário Santos De França & Emerson Luís Lemos Marinho, 2016. "Impacts Of Malnutrition On Labor Productivity: Empirical Evidences In Rural Brazil," Anais do XLII Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 42nd Brazilian Economics Meeting] 236, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].
    20. Marrero,Gustavo Alberto & Rodríguez,Juan Gabriel & Van Der Weide,Roy, 2021. "Does Race and Gender Inequality Impact Income Growth ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9865, The World Bank.
    21. Burkhauser, Richard V & Holtz-Eakin, Douglas & Rhody, Stephen E, 1997. "Labor Earnings Mobility and Inequality in the United States and Germany during the Growth Years of the 1980s," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 38(4), pages 775-794, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ecr:col048:7598. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Biblioteca CEPAL (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eclaccl.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.