SVG to pilot OECS Enterprise Survey

The OECS Pilot Enterprise Survey will be conducted in St Vincent and the Grenadines later this month. The pilot project is jointly funded by the OECS Secretariat under the 10th EDF for Economic Integration and Trade of the OECS Region Project and the ILO Decent Work Team and Caribbean Office.{{more}}

The project, which is administered jointly by the Department of Labour and the Central Statistical Office, is a survey of business enterprises and is referred to specifically as the Job Openings and Labour Turnover Survey (JOLTS). It is expected to cover all non-agricultural industries in the public and private sectors throughout St Vincent and the Grenadines and includes retailers, manufacturers, hotels, and other service providers, among other establishments.

This survey was developed to address the need for reliable and timely data on total employment, job vacancies, hires, quits, layoffs, and other separations. Through this survey and other labour market information-gathering initiatives, the Department of Labour is attempting to fill the information gap that presently exists in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

The survey would specifically seek to address questions and trends related to the operation and the performance of the St Vincent and the Grenadines labour market such as:

Which industries are growing and those that are being challenged? What types of training and education do employers require of prospective employees? What jobs are employers having difficulty filling? What are the highest paying occupations? What occupations are projected to grow the fastest?

The findings of the JOLT Survey would undoubtedly benefit a wide range of people. For job seekers, labour market information may be about job opportunities, education and skill level requirements, working conditions, prevailing wage rates, making career choices; for employers, labour market information can guide recruitment efforts, training practices, and investment and location decisions; for educators and training institutions, labour market information can be useful when forecasting student demand, developing curricula, and planning training courses/programmes; and for national policy-makers, labour market information can be used as a main economic indicator of employment growth, to monitor the economy and to formulate employment and training policies, projects and programmes.

The benefits and usefulness of this JOLT survey can only be realized through the full cooperation and participation of the members of the business community. Employers and managers are assured that individual names of business enterprises and corresponding details will not be made public.