The world is recovering from a shock and getting to terms with an altered reality. Our lives have been rattled in the core; habits and behaviours that we used to take for granted have been disrupted. Work has invaded homes, school is virtual, outdoor activities are restricted. Thankfully there has been several positive outcomes. The most significant one for me has been the gift of Time. More time to think. More time to reflect. More time to decide what I want.
The upcoming budget will arguably be the most significant one since our independence. Like many others, I took some time to close my eyes and imagine “What would a future-proof Mauritius look like?” This is my humble contribution as a worried but very optimistic citizen.
Imagine and Ignite an Employment and Reintegration Framework
An Unemployment tsunami is coming our way. Actually, Unemployment will not be our biggest challenge; it will be Labour Underutilization, sometimes also referred to as Skills Mismatch in some sectors. Optimum utilization of our labour force has been a greater challenge for us and it will be worse in the coming months.
To put things into context, here are some figures published by Statistics Mauritius this month for year 2019:
Unemployed labour (39,700) – 6.7% as at Jan 2020
- Only 4% of the employed have secondary jobs – most probably due to contractual and legal restrictions on dual employment
- Almost half of the unemployed do not hold the School Certificate but around 69% of the unemployed is made up of persons with work experience – opportunity for Reskilling/Upskilling
- More than half of the unemployed are not registered at the Employment Service. Why? No perceived benefit or pull factor.
In 2019, labour underutilization (excluding unemployment) worked out to be 118,300, approximately 20% of the workforce comprising of:
- Skills-related underemployed (43,700), i.e those who were in employment and having tertiary qualifications and were engaged in occupations such as clerical support workers, service and sales workers, skilled agricultural workers, plant and machine operators and elementary occupations.
- Time-related underemployed (72,200), i.e those who were in employment and were available for extra work.
- Potential labour force (2,400), i.e persons not in employment and who were not actively looking but were available for work or those who were actively looking but were not available for work.
The current Workfare program and other provisions under the WRA 2019 are inapt and insufficient to deal with the challenges ahead. We need different strategies to address each segment of the unemployed population – blue collar, white collar, skilled, unskilled, experienced, young graduate, etc. We cannot put everyone in the same basket. Here are 3 proposals to help pave the way forward:
a) We must define a proper Employment and Reintegration framework including an adequate structure and mechanisms for training, reskilling, upskilling, redeployment, etc.
- Define and implement an active employment policy programme to increase employability and assist in reintegration
- Willingness to work and/or mandatory work activity must be a pre-requisite for eligibility of unemployment benefit
- Should cater for both short-term and long-term unemployment
- Accelerate the setting up of the National Employment Agency (NEA) as a one-stop shop for registration, employment counselling, training and placement of jobseekers. Inspired on the French ‘Pole Emploi’ model. If I am not mistaken, this has been announced in the budget since 2015.
- The NEA should be centrally managed through a platform and based on Manpower Forecast, Supply & Demand principles at a macro level and multi-sector. It should also become the only source of statistics for employment and skills. Additionally, it should be run as a Public Private Partnership (PPP).
- Set up a specialised institution under the NEA to address Labour Underutilisation; assessment and upskilling of the skilled unemployed and deployment channels into demand sectors
- Entrepreneurship should be one of the main outcomes and avenues of the Framework but proper training and support must be provided through the NEA. We must reassess effectiveness of SME Mauritius today.
b) We must review the relevant legislation in depth such as income tax (PAYE), amongst others:
- legal framework on atypical work must be reinforced and support structures more explicitly defined through schemes similar to YEP or NSDP
- dual employment should be encouraged where possible to enable people to have more sources of income if they wish but pay less income tax
- improve social benefits for freelance/casual workers (similar to Govt medical scheme – to offer affordable premium levels to individuals)
- review the concept of permanent and pensionable employment and associated benefits and replace with more agile and flexible employment framework
c) Re-ignite stagnating economic sectors to absorb unemployment
We have to reimagine, reinvent and reignite labour intensive industries such as agriculture, manufacturing and BPO. And then redirect the unemployed labour force towards these sectors under proper training and support by the NEA.
- Position Mauritius as multi-lingual BPO and Shared Services hub like Philippines, Argentina, etc
- The local Agriculture sector must be completely re-imagined in the context of Industry 4.0 and automation
- There are 20,000+ expatriates doing manual to semi-skilled jobs in Mauritius. Why not make these jobs available again to Mauritians by forcing these businesses to review their operating models and incentivizing them?
d) Imagine a Future-ready Mauritian Talent pool
“The difference between Winning and Losing will bs Talent”
In order to invent and ignite the economic activities, we will need skills and expertise in new sectors such data science, telemedicine or AI.
- Conduct a Skills gap analysis across industries and imagine future skills demand
- Define a national Hot Skills Demand list
- Ignite education and skills development in emerging technologies
- Many Mauritian professionals will lose their jobs in Europe or elsewhere but they will choose to stay there. Therefore, this is a golden opportunity to work on a more attractive Returning Resident scheme for those who fit the Hot Skills Demand list.
Our biggest challenge in the coming months will not be financial. It will be a human one. And our success will depend on how effective we will be in successfully managing our human capital.
