Guyana’s informal economy accounts for at least 30% of its employment sector – US report

– finds businesses face challenges with staff recruitment, retention

As labour shortages continue to affect all sectors across Guyana, a recent Investment Climate Report released by the United States (US) State Department has found that the country has a major informal economy that accounts for between 30 and 50 per cent of the job market.
This is in part attributable to the many Guyanese pursuing self-employment in unregulated jobs, the report added but noted that businesses continue to report significant challenges when it comes to staff recruitment and retention.
“These issues are linked to a small pool of semi-skilled and skilled workers,” the report, released this year, pointed out.
Noting that the private sector has made repeated calls for immigration reform to increase the supply of skilled labour, the US report said companies entering Guyana should consider training and capacity-building opportunities for their employees.
It was further documented that Guyana’s labour market is tightening due to high investments in the oil and gas sector and that the Local Content Act “creates pressure on an already tight labour market by offering legal protections and incentives for Guyanese companies to service the oil and gas sector, fueling the flight of labour and investment to the industry and raising the risk of the resource curse.”

The report also referenced the 2021 Guyana Labour Force Survey Third Quarter Report, the most recent available, which noted that the labour force participation rate was 49.6 per cent, while unemployment stood at 14.5 per cent.
It also found that Guyana’s brain drain was evident, noting that “at 89 per cent, Guyana has one of the highest emigration rates in the world for nationals with a university degree.”
The report further made specific mention of professionals such as nurses and teachers emigrating in high numbers. Nevertheless, it has recognised efforts being employed by the Government to address the situation.
“…the GoG is considering inviting nurses from other Commonwealth nations to help fill the widening gap in the local labour force,” the report said.
It also acknowledged that there is an ongoing push for an information and communications technology curriculum in Guyana’s schools to develop a talent pool for the industry.
Additionally, the University of Guyana – the country’s premier tertiary educational institution – has expanded its engineering programme to address labour shortages in that area.
The Government is also moving to import labour to offset some of the demand, with Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo assuring that they will not be paid more than Guyanese.
“It will be comparable to what our people will get for the particular skill…So, if you have a registered nurse who is making ‘x’ amount of money, including the other benefits, the Guyanese will have to get exactly that same amount, or maybe, in some cases, even higher,” he had told reporters in March this year.
With the Government building 12 new hospitals across the country and planning to rehabilitate existing healthcare facilities, there would be a need for more doctors, including specialised doctors, as well as an increase in the number of nurses.
Only recently, The Director of the Center for Local Business Development (CLBD) Dr Natasha Gaskin-Peters stated that in the next five years’ Guyana will need some 53,000 workers to support various sectors.
This was derived from the Guyana Labor Assessment study which was conducted by the CLBD in collaboration with the University of Guyana, Greater Guyana Initiative, and several key government agencies.
One of the findings is that Guyana will need 53,000 workers to support various sectors such as oil and gas, construction, transportation, and agriculture in the coming years.
“We need 53,000 plus new workers and that’s only across five sectors that we looked at and they are 22 sectors, so I think in addition to the importation of labour, we also have to ensure that we train our Guyanese folks. We still have quite a lot of women that are within the unpaid work even though we have made significant progress,” she had stated.