NIA CHARLESTOWN NEVIS – With the labour market on Nevis showing signs of buoyancy, Premier the Honourable Mark Brantley, Minister responsible for Human Resources in the Nevis Island Administration (NIA) is encouraging persons seeking employment to take advantage of the jobs that are available.
“I think we have been quietly having very, very good returns in terms of jobs on the island…The job prospects in Nevis are good and there are a lot of jobs, particularly entry-level jobs for particularly our young people. The first job, that opportunity exists.
“We have the call centres. We used to have one in Brownhill years ago, that closed. We now have another one that has replaced them and we have a second that has started operations in town, and both of those are also indicating that they are employing and they are growing. So I believe that we are in good stead where jobs are concerned and encourage our people [to take them]. It makes no sense for the government to be working with the private sector to create the environment for jobs if our people are not going to take advantage of them,” the Premier said.
He praised the Hon. Spencer Brand, Minister of Labour, for leading the transformation of the Department of Labour into a provisional employment agency. The Department has started advertising private sector job vacancies and gone a step further by assisting persons with the application process.
“I want again to commend the Honourable Spencer Brand, our Minister of Labour. We decided to transform the Labour Department into not just [handling] labour complaints but also an employment agency. So what we encourage employers to do is when they have jobs available, they advertise those jobs with the Labour Department, the Department in turn collects all the information and says to the public these are the jobs that are available.
“For those out there who see these publications and are interested in working and accessing any of those jobs, they can go to the Labour Department and bring the information and the Department will assist them in filling out the necessary applications so that they can access these jobs. We are trying to make it as easy as possible for people to access work.”
The Premier reminded that the government is not able to employ everybody on the island, and encouraged persons to take advantage of the private sector job opportunities. He urged job seekers, especially at the entry-level, to apply for and hold on to available jobs until something better comes along, as it is better to be earning some income than none at all.