By Nicosia Smith
Obtaining employment in Linden is proving to be a major challenge since the number of persons seeking jobs outstrips the number of positions available, a situation that is causing qualified youths to earnestly pursue migration.
Businesses report an average of 25 job applications per month; and coming in third, behind Berbice and Georgetown, Linden ranks among the top communities getting remittances from abroad. However, with the US economy believed to be in recession and the local cost of living skyrocketing more persons are seeking employment to make ends meet. Transportation rates in Linden along with the rest of the country have increased and the town faces an imminent electricity tariff increase.
In 2006, an employment survey of Region Ten done by the Regional Development Unit of the Regional Democratic Council found that 8,363 persons were employed across seven sectors. The agriculture and forestry sectors accounted for 1,943; mining and quarrying 2,295; fishing 46; manufacturing 793; education 954; urban self employment 1,731 and rural/hinterland self employment 601. It found too that 586 persons relied on remittances and total unemployment was put at 2,140. The region’s entire population of 41,112 was the survey sample.
Businesses inundated
with applications
Kemer Herbert, manager at Toucan Connection Call Centre at Kara Kara told Stabroek News he receives about 50 job applications a month. He said though the centre intends to hire additional staff this year he could not say how many positions would be available. The company started operations last year with about 25 employees and currently has over 80 staff. Meanwhile, Personnel and Industrial Relations Superintendent at Bosai Minerals Group Guyana, Peter Benny, said the company receives 30-40 applications per month and around 90% of them from unskilled persons. Bosai is the largest private company in Linden, employing 650 persons. The company has increased its staff by around 150 since beginning operations last April.
Similarly, Stan Smith, manager of Jacks Hotel, Restaurant, Snackette and Bar said that the number of applications he receives per month is around 26, and the applicants are seeking whatever jobs are available.
Smith explained that, “I do not take on people unless [we] have [an] opening.” Jacks employs about 40 persons but once a vacancy opens up Smith said he goes back to his pile of applications for a potential staff. Basil Jaipaul, owner of Riverview Shopping Centre told this newspaper that his business receives about seven applications for jobs monthly. The applicants would usually request whatever jobs are available and do not seek specific positions.
The jobless
A little after 10 am last Tuesday, Stabroek News spoke with a single parent sitting near to the north gate of Bosai Minerals Group hoping a scrap metal contractor would call her to work. The persons hired by the contractor do not become employees of Bosai, but are the responsibility of the contractor. This 35-year-old single mother said she has sat in the same spot for about two weeks but she does not know if her job hunt will be successful.
The woman said she sent out three applications seeking whatever positions were available at the establishments. These, she said, were in addition to applications she sent out last year. The woman explained that she also undertook maintaining and weeding parapets, on a contractual basis. (Apart from the
full-time sanitary staff of the Mayor and Town Council, residents from various communities have groups that maintain parapets and drains, under a Ministry of Finance programme, for a monthly wage of $25,000.) She also said that she went for an opening at a snackette, and as part of the process she underwent a medical examination and applied for a police clearance but she did not get the job. Before she became unemployed, this single parent worked as a cook.
Stabroek News observed three other women waiting with the woman for the same job. However, they declined to comment. This newspaper had also seen as many as ten persons, mostly women sitting near the north gate waiting to be called for scrap metal clearing jobs. According to one source, there are six permanent staff that work with the contractor and additional persons are hired to pack the containers that ship the scrap metal out of the town. The permanent staff use blowtorches to cut the scrap metal to sizes for packing. This newspaper understands that the contractor was hired to dismantle a dilapidated plant.
Meanwhile, homemaker Anne Headley of South Amelia’s Ward told this newspaper that her last full-time job was five years ago and since that time she has sought employment. Headley is seeking a sales person position but is willing to take other positions that may be available. She said it is difficult without a job to gain some form of income but she makes snacks like sugar-cake and flour-based treats to sell since she is the main breadwinner in the home.
Nineteen-year-old Nikita Edwards, of Blue Berry Hill, Christianburg has sought an administrative job for two years. The teen said she has applied at all major businesses and public entities in Linden and the responses to date have been that they will look at the application and call her back.
Edwards said if she goes to query her application, there is usually no personnel officer available and she is often told that the manager is not in office. It is frustrating she said, when you have qualifications and do not have a job. Apart from successfully completing her secondary education she also took the one year Industrial Relations and Management course offered by the University of Guyana, Institute of Distance and Continuing Education to boost her qualifications. She related that the situation, “kind of make you dependent on other persons instead of you making your own money.”
Edwards said she often feels dejected as her friends are working and she is not. The teenager contended that after parents send their children to school for six years, they are expected to be independent, but as it stands now she depends on her relatives for support. As a result, she said migration is, “first and foremost,” her goal as soon as the opportunity presents itself.
A tradesman told this reporter that men do not want to work for small sums since they have more responsibilities. He said sometimes men may have two homes, theirs and their parents’. He said women may work for $1,000 per day but a man will want $3,000 for a day’s work and as such more women are employed. He posited too that men do not see working for some income as better than earning no income.
This newspaper has observed that men in the community flock to the construction industry, the logging industry, the gold fields and to farming.
