Labour Market Information System being revamped in Jamaica

The Labour Market Information System (LMIS) is being revamped to make it more user-friendly, efficient and secure.

The website, which falls under the purview of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, enables employers to post job openings, and persons seeking employment to upload résumés.

Job matching and placements are executed through the LMIS’s Electronic Exchange (ELEX).

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Colette Roberts Risden, says the enhanced website will be more contemporary with a number of significant features

These, she said, include an improved user interface, heightened security mechanisms to safeguard data, and facilitation of more robust reports that provide detailed labour market analyses.

Mrs. Roberts Risden said this undertaking is being facilitated through partnerships the Ministry has forged with several stakeholders.

She was speaking at the recent closing ceremony for the New Employment Opportunities (NEO) Jamaica Project, at the Terra Nova All-Suite Hotel in St. Andrew.

Mrs. Roberts Risden said the upgraded LMIS and ELEX will be complemented by a mobile app that has been developed, all of which are slated to be unveiled shortly.

The app’s development was made possible through stakeholder collaborations forged under the NEO.

The US$9.3-million project was administered by the MultiCare Youth Foundation under the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) Youth Upliftment Through Employment (YUTE) initiative, in tandem with several key stakeholders.

These included the Ministries of Labour and Social Security, and Science, Energy and Technology.

It aimed to provide at-risk youth, 17 to 29 years, with the requisite skills, through training, to fill in-demand occupations.

The initiative was jointly financed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) and local stakeholders.

A memorandum of understanding was signed between the Labour and Social Security Ministry and YUTE in 2017 to establish a partnership geared towards increasing job entry among the targeted youth.

Mrs. Roberts Risden said the Labour Ministry anticipates robust and wider usage of the revamped LMIS and ELEX, and mobile app, resulting in the accrual of significant benefits.

“We will be in a much better position because we will have the information on the labour market [in terms of] what are the jobs that people are looking for, and what are the skill sets that are out there for persons who are unemployed or underemployed. If we have that information, then it will also enable us to make more informed decisions regarding matters such as the granting of work permits, among other things,” she added.