ACCORDING to a review of the International Decade for People of African Descent (IDPADA-G) needs assessment, there is no hard evidence showing that Afro-Guyanese are marginalised in the employment sector in Guyana.

Financial analyst, Joel Bhagwandin, who conducted the study of IDPADA-G (2015-2024), the Guyana situation/IDPADA-G’s strategic plan, concluded that the unemployment issue, which plagues all Guyanese, regardless of ethnicity, is connected to the skill shortage. It was also said that the government is implementing several programmes and initiatives to fix the issue.

“The notion that African Guyanese are marginalised in terms of employment could not be corroborated with hard evidence,” the assessment read.

Even though Afro-Guyanese only accounted for 28 per cent of the labour force in the third quarter of 2021, the critical review stated that the unemployment situation presumably would have improved by this point because, during that time, the economy began to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, which was aided by the government’s expansionary policies, cost-of-living measures, and development agenda in infrastructure, to name a few.

“With that in mind, the unemployment situation currently is not necessarily attributed to the lack of opportunities per se, but more so, the lack of skills,” the report revealed, underscoring the shortage of labor in a number of areas such as the construction sector.

It then went on to say: “There is also a skills deficit problem which is a natural phenomenon of what is taking place in the economy, and largely due to historical events where thousands of skilled Guyanese migrated owing to the political, social, and economic situation of the country, decades ago.”

Noting that the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) government is implementing an “ambitious education strategy,” the document said that the myriad of programmes and initiatives being rolled out such as free tertiary education by 2025 and the provision of more than 20,000 scholarships for Guyanese, are aimed at aiding the Guyanese labour force to re-tool, enhance, upgrade their skillsets, and develop new skills.

The document further stated: “According to a recent study conducted by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) together with this author’s estimate (using the study as the base), over the next 10-15 years, the projected demand for skilled labour across all sectors is 130,212 persons,” explaining that: “This means that with a labour force participation rate of 50 per cent, there are opportunities for the full labour force to participate, and for every Guyanese.”