Rijksdienst Caribisch Nederland (RCN) in collaboration with the Public Entities Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba and the Education and Labor Market Council of the Dutch Caribbean (Raad Onderwijs Arbeidsmarkt Caribisch Nederland – ROA CN) commissioned a labor market research. The results of this research became available recently.
The goal of the research was to offer insight on the interconnection between the supply and demand of the labor market in the Dutch Caribbean and the interconnection between the (vocational) education and the requirements of the labor market. Additionally the position and the image of RCN and the Public Entities as employers were investigated.
The results of the research are presented in two reports. The report "The labor market in the Dutch Caribbean 2013, including recommendations for policy" and the report "The position of the government as an employer in the Dutch Caribbean".
The labor market in the Dutch Caribbean
The authors of the report advise to give priority to:
· Giving an impulse to vocational studies which are relevant for the labor market, primarily the technical professions, ICT, tourism and hospitality.
· Making a start in the development and execution of a coherent migration policy. For the migration between the islands as well as for the remigration from the Netherlands.
· Formulating a specific mediation objective and further developing and employing of mediation tools to tackle unemployment better.
· Offering employment contracts for longer periods (minimum of 3 years) more often, and offering fixed contracts to remigrants.
· Adapting the quality of the labor legislation and stricter enforcement thereof.
· The improvement of the investment climate for established and new businesses. This includes amongst others the adjustment of tax legislation in favor of the investors.
One of the recommendations in the report is to assign a coordination point to manage, stimulate and monitor the implementation of all recommendations. The Public Entity would be the most appropriate for this task, since it primarily concerns the improvement of the functioning of the labor market on the island.
The position of the government as employer
The report does not contain specific analyses for Saba and Sint Eustatius, for too little filled out questionnaire were submitted by employees on these islands.
From the report it results that RCN and the Public Entity are attractive employers for potential employees. Primarily for the people on the islands and to a lesser degree for people from the region. For people from the Netherlands, including remigrants, there are a lot of obstacles, especially in the financial area. An investigation was made what can be done to secure enough inflow of well educated personnel on a short en mid long term.
The authors of the report amongst other things advise the following:
· Give more attention to retaining the current personnel.
· Increase the productivity of every employee by improving the internal efficiency.
· Decrease workload.
· Develop a professional employee policy further, including policies directed towards specific elderly and youth and provide development opportunities.
· Adapt the recruitment methods.
RCN, the Public Entities and ROA CN will, jointly wherever necessary, draw their conclusions and see in which way they can take measures and transform the results of the labor market research into policy, thereby pointing out that parts of the recommendations are on the areas of the The Hague departments and belong to their responsibilities.
The research and consultancy organization Ecorys in collaboration with the economic and management consultancy office Curconsult executed the labor market research.