MORE THAN half the number of unemployed Jamaicans have, in recent times, stopped looking for work, feeling there is no hope of ever finding a job.According to the 1999 Economic and Social Survey of Jamaica (ESSJ), which registers annual changes in the social and economic sectors, there were 175,200 unemployed persons in 1999. Of that number 58.8 per cent of unemployed persons had abandoned the job search at the time of their survey.
"The job-seeking rate has been trending upward over the past five years...(In 1999) there were 72,200 seekers to 103,400 non-seekers, in other words, 41.2 per cent of the unemployed were actively looking for work", stated the survey. This, the survey added, shows "the severity of unemployment" and "the extent of discouraged workers, that is, persons who have stopped their active job search as they have lost hope of gaining employment".
Employment agencies, which have come in contact with such discouraged Jamaicans, confess their own distress at being unable to find job openings.
"We have seen quite a few people who have given up not only on the job search but on life," said Lisa Quarrie, administrative manager of Dot's Personnel Services.
Ms. Quarrie said the problem of hopelessness was mainly with under qualified persons who "get jobs which pay a mere $2,000 per week or none at all." She also explained that it is easier for middle and upper management persons to get jobs "but these people get jobs for which they are often overqualified."
The ESSJ indicated that the number of persons in the professional category has increased, but they are more persistent in the job search than those less skilled.
Elaine Edmondson, of Executive Placement and Management Services, agrees that "many people are fed up," and explained that "we have people from the middle and upper management positions who can't get jobs as when we check for them we hear of staff cuts."
She added that "some people have been on the (job seekers) list for over a year."
The ESSJ classifies as chronic, situations where persons have been unemployed for more than a year, and reports that 26.6 per cent of the unemployed had been out of work for more than a year. Many are changing their employment focus.
Monique Allen, a graduate of UTech who has been out of work for more than a year, said "at this stage I am willing to try anything, I think going away may be better," she said. "How can I stay here, after spending so much money on school fee and nothing? One year out of school and nothing."
Ms. Allen falls into the ESSJ profile of more women than men being without work for more than a year. It said "18.7 per cent of the unemployed men had been without work for more than one year, the corresponding proportion of women was 30.5 per cent".
Supporting the claim that many frustrated job seekers have given up is Verah Blake, project co-ordinator at the Workforce Development Consortium Ltd. She explained that "some people are weighed down and may have given up."
Her work has led her into the banana and sugar cane fields where she says that "many men having worked for years in these industries wonder what next and are at a loss when there are lay-offs."
