Labour Exchange to help tackle unemployment

Last Updated on Friday, 18 December 2015, 22:38 by GxMedia

Efforts are being made to update and expand the operations of the Central Recruitment and Manpower Agency (CRMA), so that it can better serve the public. This will contribute to the Administration’s effortto minimise unemployment in Guyana, the Government Information Agency (GINA) reported Friday.

The unit intends to expand its services to Regions 1, 3, 7, 8, 9 and 10 with a view of increasing its presence throughout the country.

Minister in the Ministry of Social Protection, Simona Broomes, during a recent interview with the Government Information Agency (GINA), said that this process would be driven by a survey to determine the true state of unemployment locally.

“We are looking to deal with unemployment in the country, and at the end of our five years we can give you accurate statistics because the statistics department is up and functioning. We are expanding all those departments so that we can get real numbers and not just numbers out of the sky like what was happening, we ought to have a decent arrangement and we are talking about transparency, and the government is definitely hoping for that,” she explained.

It is believed that the local unemployment figures are high and mostly young people are falling into the category of unemployed.

According to Minister Broomes, expanding the role of the CRMA across the country would put job seekers and job providers in to contact with each other.

“We have been placing persons and we want to place more persons, and now the companies, they are excited. In fact it was well underplayed. They never knew that there is a recruitment and manpower section, and lot of Guyanese do not know about it, so they are not going in, so now the companies they are happy to know that they can just call and get qualified persons to fill their vacancies,” Minister Broomes revealed.

The CRMA, traditionally known as the Labour Exchange or Employment Bureau, is the t unit within the Ministry of Social Protection responsible for the recruitment and placement of human resources in keeping with vacancies advertised by employers.