|
I am not psychic but I have noticed trends over the years, so I will share with
you how I think things will go this year.
1. More movement in the T&T job market
Generally, the amount of new business received by a recruitment agency is an
effective barometer of confidence in the economy. Companies employ new
staff when there is plenty of new work to be done, or to replace existing staff.
An exception to this is when they hire before a company "hiring freeze" prevents
them from doing so later on. A dramatic example of this was the record
sales CRS enjoyed for 6 months after September 11th in 2001, followed by a slump
in business.
Staff usually look to move jobs when they feel confident
that there is plenty of work to keep them in the new job. Otherwise, they
stay put to avoid the "last in, last out" method of redundancy allocation.
Right now, there is a lot of movement in our local market
- an unusually high number of job placements in December, traditionally a very
low volume month. Also, we are getting more and more good quality people
joining our database or updating their résumés, showing that they are willing to
move jobs to progress their careers.
We are also getting enquiries for I.T. staff from other
Caribbean islands as well as foreign companies seeking to set up business in
T&T. 2. Improvements in Telecommunications
I don't suppose that we in Trinidad & Tobago will be enjoying widespread
high speed Internet access as in the United States or Europe this year, but I do
believe that TSTT (Cable & Wireless) has to offer a faster and cheaper service
to compete when deregulation of our telecomms service comes into effect later
this year.
This will open up all sorts of options for businesses
and I foresee that many companies will start to look seriously at the potential
offered by e-business opportunities. Right now, surfing and and
downloading from the Internet is still painfully slow for most of us.
Also, foreign companies will be far more willing to set up branches here if they
know that they don't have to suffer slow and expensive communications.
3. Greater Demand for Highly Skilled I.T. People
If foreign companies do set up in T&T then there will be a demand for better
technical skills such as C++, cryptography, embedded programming skills,
security programming, and so on (we are already getting requests for these
skills). Of course, there are few people here who have this experience, so
the companies will have to train them.
What our country has to offer is an
educated skills base with an excellent work ethic (in the professional classes)
with better than average people skills. We are an
English speaking "near-shore" (to the USA) country but we have to compete with
large population countries like India so it's still hard to win this business.
The technology/industrial park being developed at Wallerfield should help make
T&T more
attractive.
4. Brain Drain of Skills Overseas
Now that the worldwide recession is turning round and things are looking
brighter up North, it is only a matter of time that the jobs available
internationally exceed the skills to tap into. I believe that
opportunities will once again arise to tempt our skilled professionals to
further their career abroad.
Although it may seem that our country is
losing some of its brightest stars, the benefit is that one day they may return
with a depth of experience that could never have been realised here in Trinidad,
and this will help our country move forward to compete in the global market.
|
