People holding multiple jobs could unleash economic growth – Aubyn Hill
AUBYN HILL, chief executive officer of the Economic Growth Council, says that one option that could be exploited in helping to drive sustainable economic growth is to reform the country’s l abour practices to allow people the opportunity to work multiple jobs.
He told a roomful of business leaders and industry players at a Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) Breakfast Forum yesterday at The Pegasus hotel in Kingston that the labour laws needed changing in order for Jamaica to fully realise the strength of a growing economy.
“What I would like to see is many young people having three or four jobs on their desk at any time,” Hill said.”We have had two generations of people who really do not know what it is to live in a growing economy where they can have the option to work in three or four places because people are demanding their services. We don’t have that yet in Jamaica,”
The former banker said that with inflation on a downward trajectory in recent months and Jamaica holding a top -five position in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business survey, it is time to seize the moment by making workable changes to stimulate sustainable growth.
REDUCING POVERTY
“These are significant indicators, but in the meantime, we must know that poverty is brutal. It is because poverty is so brutal that we must achieve robust and sustained economic growth to seriously reduce the poverty that besets us a nation,” he said.
“I don’t know any country, whether it be Israel, Singapore, the United States or Finland, that has bettered its people’s existence, making them prosperous, without sustained economic growth,” Hill reiterated.
He said that the economic potential the country is now looking to unleash has been locked up in knowledge, and urged that more be done in the education sector to set it free.
Hill was among three new PSOJ inductees at yesterday’s forum. The others were Digitronics Limited, represented by CEO Andrew Madden, and Yello Media Group, represented by Marketing Manager Tshani Jaja, Rasheed Givan and Ayanna Kirton.