Saint Lucia will soon launch a pilot of the OECS Labor Needs Assessment Survey. The survey will help to monitor the demand for an employee’s skills by providing information on flows of labor and unfilled vacancies.

It will also assess the effectiveness of training programs that prepare persons for the job market, and evaluate difficulties encountered by employers in filling job vacancies.

Coordinator for the OECS Labor Market Information Systems program, Sean Curtis Mathurin, spoke on the development of a harmonized questionnaire to facilitate the piloting of the survey.

“The questionnaire will be further revised and finalized ahead of the plan piloting in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Two modules will be added to the core questionnaire: a Technical Vocational Education Training/TVET and the Department of Labor modules. After the initial piloting in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the questionnaire will be further piloted in Saint Lucia and Grenada.”

Mathurin said that in order to formulate and implement policies for ever changing labor markets, it is important that statistics on vacancies, employment, unemployment, underemployment and wages are provided.

“The Labor Needs Assessment survey will assist in monitoring the demand for employee’s skills. In addition, it will assess the effectiveness of training programs that prepare persons for the job market,” he said.

The OECS Commission expects the survey to provide detailed information on job creation based on the rationale, industry and occupation as well as difficulties employers have with finding suitable labor.

Saint Lucia and Grenada have conducted the Labour Needs Assessment Survey twice and once respectively.