With a major international organization reporting that more Caribbean workers have wage-earning jobs than did before the pandemic, a regional recruitment firm says it’s doing its part to help people easily find better-paying and higher-quality jobs.

Caribbean Employment Services Inc. is a market-leading digital talent acquisition service that aims to connect the top talent from the Caribbean with hiring managers, HR professionals and decision-makers in companies both within the Caribbean as well as abroad. Further, it aims to provide the region’s jobseekers and those who are already employed with news and resources related to Caribbean labour.

“The ECLAC (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean ) not too long ago released a report showing that more than 60% of workers in the region are wage earners,” says Joseph Boll, Caribbean Employment Services Inc. CEO. “Their data shows that this is the highest percentage of wage workers in the region since 2018.”

Boll notes that wage earners face added vulnerabilities that salaried workers do not, because their paycheque can fluctuate from week to week.

“Unlike salaried workers, who get the same fixed pay no matter how many hours they actually work, wage earners only get as many hours as they put in,” he notes. “This can be great when there is overtime or holiday pay to be earned. But if economic prospects go downhill quickly, as they did during the pandemic, wage workers can suddenly find themselves taking home much less pay than normal. This can make it difficult for them to make ends meet, and can force them to look into informal jobs as a way to get by.”

Boll says the high percentage of wage earners in the Caribbean underscores the importance of national minimum wages that enable residents to eke a respectable living in the face of global inflation and amid economies that are still recovering from the worst of the pandemic’s effects.

He adds that it highlights the importance of training and upskilling opportunities that will qualify Caribbean workers for higher-paying jobs, as well as resources like government job banks and services like Caribbean Employment Services Inc. that help residents to more easily find high-quality, high-paying jobs.

“While it is good that minimum-wage workers are formally employed, so they are not as vulnerable as informal workers are, a minimum wage should not necessarily be the end job in mind,” says Boll. “At Caribbean Employment Services Inc., we are helping to bridge the gap between employers and jobseekers so that more Caribbean people can find, apply for and be hired for jobs that will earn them a higher standard of living.”