November 11, 2022
Whether knowingly or unknowingly, women are likely leading the charge when it comes to Jamaica’s recovery, with labour data showing they perform the double duty of accounting for most recent increases in employment as well as most of the unpaid domestic labour within the home.
As is the case in many neighbouring Caribbean nations, and parts of Latin America as well, unpaid domestic labour in Jamaica is often left to women, who often have full-time jobs but are still required to return home each day to care for children and relatives and take care of the home.
However, the Statistical Institute of Jamaica’s (STATIN) most recent labour force survey found that women are taking the lion’s share when it comes to the increase in jobs and employment, as well as the increase in service jobs, which accounted for most of the new jobs as of July 2022.
Meanwhile, Jamaica itself has bounced back from the detrimental effects of the COVID-19 pandemic remarkably quickly, which Caribbean Employment Services Inc. CEO Joseph Boll says bears witness to the extraordinary recovery in the most unprecedented of times. Caribbean Employment Services Inc. is a market-leading digital talent acquisition service that aims to connect the top talent from the Caribbean with hiring managers, HR professionals and decision-makers in companies both within the Caribbean as well as abroad. Further, it aims to provide the region’s jobseekers and those who are already employed with news and resources related to Caribbean labour.
Caribbean Employment Services Inc., just this year alone, has noted that Caribbean care workers have been in demand overseas. Several of the organization’s international clients in the United Kingdom and elsewhere had been earnestly recruiting Caribbean care workers and offering generous relocation packages over the summer months. When considering that Jamaican women perform an estimated JMD$991 billion in unpaid care work (Caribbean Policy Research Institute – CAPRI), it becomes evident that the double burden of paid and unpaid labour can have a negative impact on Jamaican women’s earnings.
However, the government of Jamaica may have similarly noticed the extraordinary earning potential of Jamaican women, as it earlier this year introduced a programme to usher 50 women domestic workers into the formal labour market, thereby equipping them to become entrepreneurs and begin earning a living with their skills. Caribbean Employment Services Inc. hopes to see more of this programme’s success, as well as similar initiatives that will allow working women to perform better on their income-earning jobs by having more support with home care, as suggested by CAPRI. It seems apparent that women are driving the economic growth and well as domestic care of the nation, and increasing their support can only stand to benefit the country.