No jobs available for university graduates

It is expected that after completing your degree it would be easier to find a job in your field. However, the youth unemployment rate between ages 14-24 in Jamaica for the year 2020 was 7.3 percent and since this year it has risen to 8.9 percent. The unemployment rate among males in the years 2020 and 2021 increased from 1.6 percent to 7.6 percent and females increased from 1.4 percent to 10.4 percent. This data shows that the unemployment rate has risen. In 2019, 105,200 people were unemployed and now in 2021, that number has risen to 119,400.

Steven Palmer gained a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering at the UWI from which he graduated in October 2021. Palmer started searching for a job in August of this year as he was doing an internship during his study to gain experience. Palmer said “most persons will not hire you without experience. I applied for over 50 jobs between September and October, and I only received two responses”, said Palmer. “One email said they were not accepting and another saying the email was incorrect”. Other than experience he thinks that he does not lack anything else. Palmer believes he is fully equipped to become an engineer, but he thinks others in his cohort used links to secure their jobs, and more than half of them were working. Palmer is considering going overseas. However, in the field of engineering, you have to work with an engineer for four years, other than that you would only be hired to draw a structure or be a project manager.

Rashida Williams graduated with a Bachelor of Law from the University of the West Indies in November 2020. She has worked before but it was not related to her field of study. Williams believes that the main reason she cannot find a job is COVID-19. She searched for a job for the entirety of 2020 and is still on the hunt.  “Employers are asking for three years of experience”, said Williams. She observed, “If they don’t hire us, where are we going to get experience if we’re just leaving university”. As a law student who only has a bachelor’s degree you cannot practise law, but you can work in the field in a paralegal capacity, a secretary, an administrator at a law office and other things related to the field but you cannot practise as an attorney-at-law.

Jason Rodway studied accounting at the University of Technology and graduated in 2020 and thinks he has not found a job because of his location. Rodway says he has applied for accounting jobs but did not get it because he does not live in Kingston. “Having a lack of experience is needed but not the number one reason”, added Rodway, who is still in disbelief that he does not have a job after one year of graduating.