Letter of the Day | Jamaica must revive its global services sector

THE EDITOR, Madam:

The recent disclosure by the National Security Council that Jamaica’s global services sector has contracted from approximately 60,000 to 40,000 workers, with annual foreign exchange earnings falling to between US$700 million and US$900 million, ought to command far greater public attention than it has thus far received. This is not a marginal industry statistic. It represents the erosion of one of the country’s largest sources of formal employment and foreign exchange, and it warrants a response that is as strategic and coordinated as the challenges themselves.

The causes, as industry leaders themselves have acknowledged, are not mysterious. Low productivity relative to competing outsourcing destinations, the disruptive aftermath of Hurricane Melissa, a tight domestic labour market, and the rising cost of doing business have converged to weaken Jamaica’s competitive position. Notably, artificial intelligence has been cited by sector leadership as a secondary rather than a primary driver of the current losses. This distinction matters. It means the sector’s decline can largely be reversed, provided the response is deliberate and sustained rather than reactive.

Three observations are worth placing before the public and policymakers.

First, workforce upskilling cannot remain a stated priority without becoming a funded and measured one. The Global Services Association of Jamaica has rightly identified training and development as central to the sector’s recovery, but this must be matched by concrete investment in partnership with tertiary institutions and technical training bodies so that Jamaica’s labour offering evolves in step with the changing demands of global clients rather than lagging behind them.

Second, the National Security Council’s attention to lottery scamming as a threat to the sector’s competitiveness and investor confidence is a welcome and overdue acknowledgement. The reputational damage inflicted by scamming extends well beyond the individuals directly involved. It raises the cost of doing business for legitimate operators and undermines the very investor confidence upon which the sector depends. Modernising the legislative framework, as recommended, should be treated as an economic imperative, not merely a matter of criminal justice policy.

Third, the discrepancy between government and industry figures on employment levels – a gap of some 10,000 to 15,000 jobs, depending on the reporting period – suggests a need for more rigorous and standardised data collection. A sector of this national importance should not be managed on the basis of competing estimates. Reliable, consistent data is foundational to any credible recovery strategy.

Jamaica’s underlying advantages in this industry, including English fluency, time-zone proximity to the United States, and established infrastructure, remain intact. What has been lost is not opportunity, but ground – and ground can be recovered. It will require, however, the same coordinated seriousness of purpose across government, industry, and the education sector that built this industry in the first place.

Santana N. Morris, JP