By Stabroek News
Copyright stabroeknews
Dear Editor,
Dr. Tara Singh’s letter should be the starting point for Government labour policies that are market driven, versus those that target economic development by sectors in the Gross Domestic Product. The forces that call forth individual labour supply are a person’s minimum requirements to get up and go to the work-site, field, or factory gate.
Roads and bridges have a role to play in the personal labour-leisure choices. The essential purpose of transportation infrastructure is to lower costs of transportation and house to job commute for employees, as I had written in my first strategic plan to Cheddi Jagan. This plan was later replaced by a compendium of statistics, devoid of the behavioural forces underlying the Guyanese peoples backward-bending labour supply curve and yes, the identification of an individual’s minimum wage requirements to go out and work (reservation wage). These are economic realities and not the anecdotal discussion, namely ‘you can take the horse to the water, but you can’t make the horse drink’. Guyanese are smart people and know what a dollar sign and their land-ownership rights are; historically, everyone.
Cash income transfers to the household sector require scaling based on income and/or family size as opposed to open market wages for labour services. Income level per family household and/or an individual’s income status below the nation’s poverty line could determine the amount of cash-grant per person. Cash-grant programmes would require visible communications that reach out to people in all ten regions. There is much planning work that has to be done. Cash grants should not be perceived as manna from party headquarters. They should be parliamentary approved.
Transfers to the business sector (1) subsidization of targeted production and (2) subsidization of targeted employment. These would require scaling and not thrown as ‘rice on a wall’ to see what sticks! Data driven models could use value added benchmark from the Statistical Bureau’s timely publications.
Labour supply available to GDP economic sectors, calls into play the nature and quality of employment: (1) is the job temporary or permanent. (2) if the job is temporary, does the minimum wage per day cover transportation, food, work clothes, and a bit leftover to pay bills – loans, utilities, household amenities – internet and phone, etc. Each person would have a minimum reservation wage to overcome; get up, tool up, travel up, and be at the worksite, factory, or field gate for possible selection for that day’s employment. Local labour may carry a lower minimum reservation wage than imported labour that enjoys benefits in housing, transportation, and living costs allowances.
If the job is permanent, where is it located? Is it in that 45 minutes or less commute? Is there public transportation using roads and bridges? The related transportation, house mortgage payments, or house rents, and river-crossing costs are relevant to an individual evaluation of the job risks and quality of the job itself. Wages and salaries will have to cover the actual and perceived personal expenses in order for labour supply to be forthcoming.
Dr. Tara Singh cites a CLBD (Center for Local Business Development) study that shows Guyana will need 52,396 more workers in four years’ or 13,099 persons added annually to the work force.
The Statistical Bureau’s estimate of Guyana’s labour force in 2021 was 288,748. In 2024, the World Bank reported 292,190 persons in the labour force. The total labour force could be estimated at 344,586 persons in 2029, updating the World Bank’s data. Transporting about 300,000 persons from home to work would be a serious challenge for ‘roads and bridges’. Are they in the right places to move both people and goods? It appears that public perception of the benefits of ‘roads and bridges’ will take a practical turn and that forces causing speed-drift will not interfere with individual or family’s supply of labour to the economy.
Sincerely,
Ganga Ramdas, PhD (Economics)
