Cognizant that there are inherent risks associated with being an oil producing country, the Guyana government has paid keen attention to the development of the labour market.
It said the government cannot go without preventative and mitigating strategies to guard against Dutch Disease and the resource curse syndrome.
In monitoring labour force surveys that help to track unemployment and inform interventions, the government said it is conscious of labour migration to the oil and gas sector from both the government and the rest of the private sector.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) said in its Guyana’s National Compensation Survey 2022 that Guyana’s Banking & Finance and Energy, Oil & Gas sectors offer the most attractive compensation packages. They offer 55%-65% more than non-oil sectors, the firm said. This is even as Energy, Oil & Gas accounts for a small percentage of the labour force.
As the oil and gas sector expands, PwC expects this labour grouping’s compensation to exceed Banking & Finance in competitiveness.
The government has engaged a consultant to analyse the sector specific labour market gaps and support the design of training and appropriate policy advice to resolve the ongoing labour market mismatch issues.
This is stated in an annual Ministry of Finance report which documents economic developments in the first half of the year.
Further, the government said, “investments in non-oil sectors have been prioritised to ensure a strengthened and diversified non-oil productive sector.”
This task to shore up non-oil sectors will be more critical since, as oil production ramps up in the coming years, the sector will occupy a greater portion of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
The Inter-American Development Bank said recently that oil exports in 2022 will surpass US$3 billion, representing 59.7% of Guyana’s GDP. And by 2027, current oil production levels will triple.
