12000 work permits issued yearly in the VI- SFC Report
This was revealed during the Standing Finance Committee (SFC), appointed by the House of Assembly (HoA), held in November and December 2024, to examine the Draft Estimates for the Year 2025.
According to the Report from the SFC, Mr Hastings replying to a question from Opposition Leader Hon Ronnie W. Skelton (AL), confirmed the average number of work permits yearly was around 12, 000 inclusive of new and renewals.
300 work permits denied in 2023
Mr Hastings also told the SFC that in 2023, a total of 300 work permits were denied by the department.
This was due to “false information, repeat offenders or the employer did not have legitimate work on the island”, he explained.
Mr Hastings also informed the SFC that as of October 31, 2024, all work permit renewals had been processed online and by that time also they had a total of 9,923 work permits in addition to 2023 numbers.
Official Labour Management System
Meantime, Mr Hastings explained to the SFC that the new labour system highlights, by discipline, how many work permits are being applied for, which informs the approach to the Workforce Assessment of the entire Virgin Islands.
“As a result, the Labour Department targets certain areas to facilitate the unemployed talent pool of Virgin Islanders (who would have been encouraged to register with the LD when the team went to each district) honing in on their skills,” the report identifies Mr Hastings as explaining.
Hon Vincent O. Wheatley (R9), Minister for Health and Social Services, commended the Labour Department on the official launch of the database search system in June 2024.
“This will be helpful,” he said.
Mr Hastings in providing some statistics said the number of businesses locally added to the system is 648; employees registered is 558; number of employees added currently is at 3930; job seekers registered currently was only 301; and 86 jobs available.
He also said the Labour Department is aiming to have a promotion drive to “emphasise VI community registration for this new labour management system so that they can be cognisant of what jobs are available”.
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27 Responses to “12000 work permits issued yearly in the VI- SFC Report”
Locals think packing shelf is not for them. So if they not getting an office to sit and be on a computer all day...it's not for them. They want to choose when to come to work wheresa the expats know they have to show up rain ,storm or holidays. Who you think employers will prefer?.Locals want to tell employers how much money they should get. Expats can't...DO THE MATHS. Employers will avoid the stress.
230 per week 46 per day
It still baffles as an employer why it takes over 3 months to process new or renewals. We loose days of employees getting extensions to renew work permits. The new online system takes longer to submit and there are constant clithces which need fixing. We can employ more people if we can speed up the process of work permits. We advertise and get very little Response if at all locally so have to widen the net to attract oversea applicants.
The economy will boom if this process was fixes to a 28 day for new permits and 14 days for renewals which is really not unreasonable.
I’d say BVI population these days is closer to 40,000. Probably 35-40% are retired or younger than 18. Voter rolls when last reported came to about 16,000, so a rough estimate is that there are about 12 to 13,000 employed BVIslanders. What the piece is telling us is that we are about 50% short on workers. It’s not trivial. The equivalent would be having an extra 200 million people in the US, more than the entire population of Central America. To me this highlights the critical importance of instilling better work habits with young people, and teaching them skills so we don’t have to import every plumber, mechanic, carpenter etc. Nothing wrong with doing that, but then you also have to deal with the social consequences of importing a high percentage of workers.
If you think they need working experience find a way to encourage that. Do not leave them behind. You are playing with people inteligence and emotions i begging you all to stop it. This statistic is alarming. Breaking down this 12000 categories is paramount.