Panelists at the Economic Development Summit said the US Virgin Islands needs skilled workers, reliable general labour, housing, transportation, stronger local subcontractors and incentives to bring US Virgin Islanders home as major recovery projects advance. Photo: VI Consortium

A panel of nine industry experts, including major contractors, Labour Commissioner Gary Malloy and Port Hamilton Director David Johnson, discussed the workforce and business conditions needed to support the territory’s recovery projects. The conversation centered on gaps in available labour, support services, local subcontractor capacity and the broader environment needed to make large-scale construction possible.

Contractor James Benton pointed to weaknesses in local support services, including “surveying companies, material testing, trucking companies, dumpsters.”

For Lisa Anders of MCN Build, the problem begins with the size of the available labour pool.

“There's not even enough people in the territory, let alone whether they're skilled or not skilled,” she said.

Ms Anders urged stakeholders to assess whether the territory has “enough housing, transportation, food, all the other things that would attract someone to come here or return home.” She also identified gaps on the “administrative side,” including whether local contractors are prepared “to be ready to be able to get paid in a timely basis.”

The most significant challenge, panellists agreed, is the workforce.

Workforce Development

With recovery projects expected to require a large labour force, Richard Difede of Gold Coast Yachts warned that local businesses will have to compete with major contractors paying federal wage levels.

He said it was understandable that the government would be interested in supporting a construction labour force because that industry could create the “biggest outflow to the government.” Still, he cautioned that “the private sector needs its workforce.”

Mr Difede also lamented the lack of stable workforce development programmes that consistently attract young people and eventually “meet the needs of the contractors, as well as the rest of the community.”

Labour Commissioner Gary Malloy said part of the challenge is matching available workers with the needs created by the recovery effort. He said authorities must do a better job of aligning workforce activity with the recovery.

However, Dr Malloy also acknowledged that local labour alone will not be sufficient.

“We can’t get away from the fact, as hard as it is, that we are not going to be able to do this ourselves,” he said.

Even when local workers are available, skills remain a concern. Panel moderator Michael Carty noted that the territory does not have the luxury of time.

“We don’t really have a lot of time to train folks for the next five or six years to be an expert,” Mr Carty said.

He said the territory will need to “truncate and accelerate their learning and get them out into the world of work immediately.”

Mr Benton agreed that skilled labour is needed, but said general labourers are also essential. “What we need is people who are going to show up every morning…They have to be very reliable,” he said. “We can train on the job and bring people up.”

Like other panellists, Mr Benton also emphasised the importance of soft skills, including the ability to work well in groups.

Incentivising US Virgin Islanders abroad

With an estimated 5,000 to 7,000 workers needed, the Department of Labour is exploring multiple ways to attract labour, including encouraging US Virgin Islanders living abroad to return home.

“We try to keep in touch to make sure that they know what's available locally to make sure that we can have a robust pool,” Malloy explained.

According to Malloy, “it's not about the money” for many US Virgin Islanders who want to return. Still, he said, other issues affect their decision.

“The problem that we're having is that they want to be able to own their own home here,” he said.

He also noted that some people have become accustomed to conveniences available elsewhere. “They're accustomed to Uber, they're accustomed to having Uber Eats delivered to their home.”

Malloy said incentives are needed, but he was not in favour of tax breaks. “I don't think that we need to erode our tax base anymore by offering another incentive,” he said.

Mr Carty said the incentive must be strong enough to persuade people to return. He suggested asking US Virgin Islanders “what they would return for” and “what they would be able or be willing to put up with here if the incentive was great enough.”

Ms Anders said the industry also needs to become more attractive to potential workers.

“We just need to make this industry more sexy for people,” she said.

Scaling Up Local Contractors 

Beyond workforce development, the panel also examined whether local contractors will have meaningful opportunities in major recovery projects.

Mr Carty asked major contractors whether local businesses would have a “seat at the table and aren't just getting the spillage that one of these large companies throws over.”

“It's a part of our mission to grow local and small businesses,” said Ms Anders of MCN Build.

Keith Couch of Suffolk said his company expects to award a large volume of work. “We're going to award over 600 subcontracts over the next 24 months,” he said.

Rosalie Drago of Haugland Group said the company is already working with 12 subcontractors. She said Haugland is also “identifying what the gaps are” among unsuccessful subcontractors and could develop training to help improve their eligibility to work with major contractors.

Mr Benton said several local companies are capable of doing the work, but often fall short on the administrative side, echoing a concern raised earlier by MCN Build. “Somehow, we've got to figure it out locally. It's almost like we need an incubator program,” Mr Benton suggested.

He said many contractors need funding to hire skilled employees to handle accounting and other administrative demands, but cannot secure the contracts that would generate the money needed to build that capacity. “These projects are so large that by the time you get the contracts, you've missed out,” Mr Benton said.

His proposed incubator concept would provide funding to help contractors scale up before they lose access to major opportunities. “We kind of gloss over the fact that companies have to be able to move and respond a lot quicker, and that takes investment in people and technology,” he stated.

Panellists ultimately agreed that workforce readiness will be one of the most important factors in completing the territory’s recovery projects. But they also made clear that the challenge extends beyond hiring. Housing, transportation, training, administrative capacity, subcontractor development and incentives for US Virgin Islanders abroad will all shape whether the recovery effort can move at the pace required.