BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE Federation of St. Christopher and Nevis - for whatever reason - struggles with some level of unemployment and SKNVibes thought it would be interesting to find out from people what their views are on this topic and what they feel are the contributing factors.
The name of this article was originally called “What Kittitians say” but based on an email by one of our readers; it was decided to have the name changed to “What people on the streets say” in order to widen the scope of participants.
As is the custom, SKNVibes, while in Basseterre, interviewed several individuals who were questioned on the issue and those quoted would be listed by their occupation.
Question: There are programmes like the People Employment Program (PEP) that create jobs for many residents of the Federation but there still seems to be a problem with unemployment. What do think causes this and what can be done to fix this problem?
Veterinary Technician: “The issue of unemployment in St. Kitts is a very big topic and everybody crying out that they can’t get work nowhere. But in my opinion we have no one to blame but ourselves because if you want something in life no matter what you will try and get it.
“I hate when people throw blame on businesses and the government. If you can’t get yourself up and try to make yourself, nobody will”.
Contractor: “It is a fact that we have unemployment here and that come about because the government is not doing enough for our young people. They sit in their offices and plot ways to find more money for them rather than think about our young people.
“I think what should be done is that they should create more jobs and stop allowing these investors to bring in they own people to do their work.”
Manager: “No matter where you go in the world, there is unemployment and it is worst in the Caribbean. But what astonishes me out of all is that everyone from other nations coming here and making it and we can’t do it.
“The unemployment problem is now a big thing because we have too much people here who don’t know the seriousness and importance to have a job because we have adopted a culture we can’t maintain.
“My suggestion to those who are unemployed is to stop making excuses and get up and find a job. There are many opportunities out there. It doesn’t have to be St. Kitts and Nevis...just make an effort.”
Businessman: “I am going to be very frank, the unemployment saga got two sides because one, some businesses in the Federation can only employ a small set of people and that says bad about our economy and two, we just got some of the most lazy minded people here.
“They got a set of investors that gone come and establish businesses and they are hiring a lot of our people but some of them don’t show up to work and then some of them stealing a whole load of things making bad for the others who there and taking their jobs seriously.”
Office Clerk: “To me the whole unemployment thing has decreased because more youths are finding jobs and we have more of the people turning to entrepreneurship. I will say that before it was a big issue because employers were so full on staff that you hardly find job openings.
“Yes we have PEP and a lot of the people are benefiting from the programme. I was once on it and I got employed permanently so it’s somewhat reducing.”
Entrepreneur: “We need to blame the government and the businesses that come here to say they investing in St. Kitts. Check most of the businesses, the high positions are held by non-nationals and people they bring here and we get the lowest and dirtiest of things.
“People coming here and then sooner or later they living among us and then their friends start coming and before you know it they whole empire is them. We need to stop people from coming here and take our jobs our youths need.”
If you agree or disagree with the views above, leave a comment below and tell us at SKNVibes.com what you think about unemployment in St. Kitts
Editors’s note: If there is any topic which you deem of public interest, feel free to bring it to this publication’s attention by emailing us as newsroom@sknvibes.com or call us at (869) 662-3901 or (869) 466-9242.
