Top government officials are concerned that there is a dearth of middle level job opportunities in the private sector, but this scarcity is most evident, they believe, in the hotel industry.
Information Minister Melford Nicholas, who raised the issue, said this imbalance is a major reason many young Antiguans and Barbudans look to the government for employment rather than seeking employment in the private sector.
“We (the Cabinet) have discussed what we see as a structural problem facing the economy where there are not enough middle level jobs that are created in the private sector.
“Consequently, there is a great demand of persons who want to be accorded the status of a government employee. As a member of parliament [I] get the requests every day. So too, do my colleagues.
“We have invested significant sums of public funds to develop the hotel sector. We also subsidise airlines bringing additional airlifts into the country, and while the government gets the room taxes charged to the guests, that is not enough,” he declared.
With this level of government support, Nicholas said the government’s expectation was that hotels would provide an environment that would create sustainable jobs.
As this has failed to manifest, the government’s concern is growing as more and more people are shying away from employment in the hotel sector as the employment packages offered are often unattractive.
According to Nicholas, the resulting “enormous pressure” on the government to provide jobs has forced the need for consultations between the government and the hotel operators.
“We have to engage with our economic development partners in the hotels to look at wages and salaries that are being paid. The trade unions also have a role here to ensure an equitable distribution of the wealth that comes in from tourism. Somewhere along the way, things seem to have gone awry and this presents a problem for us as a country,” he remarked.
