Research market demand before choosing field of study, says JEF head
Published:Thursday | July 3, 2025 | 12:11 AMSashana Small/Staff Reporter
President of the Jamaica Employers’ Federation (JEF) Wayne Chen is advising persons entering tertiary institutions to carefully research current market needs before selecting a field of study.
His suggestion follows data revealed by the Economic and Social Survey Jamaica (ESSJ) 2024 that only 16 per cent, or approximately 234,300 individuals in the country’s labour force, possess university degrees.
“What we have to move towards is a workforce that has a greater penetration of certified, marketable skills. Having a skill in something that the market doesn’t want is not helpful, but there are many skills in demand in the workforce that we just don’t have,” Chen told The Gleaner.
He noted, however, that this data is reflective of the rate of people in Jamaica who attain tertiary education.
Findings from the World Bank on the percentage of tertiary education school enrolment across different countries up to 2022, indicated that Jamaica’s most recent statistic in this regard was 26 per cent in 2015, less than the 27 per cent recorded in 2012.
“It reflects that the university graduates are working,” Chen stated.
In addition to researching their course of study, Chen is also encouraging university students to commit to lifelong learning, and to develop their employability skills.
“Being able to work in teams, being able to manipulate technology, being able to think critically; this is what we’ll have to teach our people,” he said.
Data from the Jamaica Tertiary Education Commission indicated an increase in total enrolment, according to the ESSJ. It revealed that total enrolment for the 2024-2025 academic year was 87,191 students across 34 institutions, compared with 84,971 for the previous academic year.
Where sex-disaggregated data was available, it showed that significantly more females than males were enrolled in tertiary institutions – 58,609 females, compared to 28,426 males, resulting in a gross enrolment rate of 34 per cent.
In 2024, 17 new institutions were registered, bringing the total number of operational higher-education institutions to 151.
Of the 16 per cent in Jamaica’s workforce that hold tertiary degrees, females account for 63.4 per cent.
The majority of the labour force – 54 per cent, or 792,700 persons – indicated that the highest level of education attained was upper secondary; among this group, 54.8 per cent were male.
The report, which is published annually by the Planning Institute of Jamaica, showed the size of the total labour force, based on data for the October quarter, was 1,468,300 persons.
Males accounted for the larger share of the total, representing 53.7 per cent, or 789,100 males, and 679,200 females, resulting in a total labour force participation rate of 68.1 per cent.
It noted that 687,500 people were outside the labour force in October 2024, the majority of whom were females, 60.8 per cent, or 417,800 individuals. Youth between the age of 15 and 24 constituted the largest proportion of persons outside the labour force, 42.8 per cent, as persons in this age group are usually enrolled in formal education and training, the report highlighted.
Persons in the prime working-age group, 25-54 years old, represented 23.7 per cent of the persons outside the labour force. Of the total number of persons in the prime working-age group who were outside the labour force, 70.9 per cent, or 115,400, were female.
In October last year, Jamaica’s unemployment rate was recorded at a historic low of 3.5 per cent.