Dec 04 Mr Bossino Has Only Limited Knowledge Of Gibraltar’s Labour Market
The statement of Mr Bossino clearly demonstrates how limited is his knowledge of the labour market in Gibraltar.
The remarks he quotes from Mr Coyne and the UK Deputy Prime Minister are a reflection of the debate in the United Kingdom. There the position is that there has been a revival in the manufacturing sector of the economy which is being held back by the lack of skilled industrial workers especially in the engineering trades.
In the Gibraltar economy, the main area of shortage in industrial skills is in the construction industry which had been allowed by the GSD to be taken over by imported labour.
In 1996 the construction industry in Gibraltar had a male workforce of 1,081 of which 483 were Gibraltarians. By 2011 just before the elections the size of the industrial workforce had grown to 2,809, an increase of the order of 150% whilst the number of Gibraltarians in it had dropped by 25% to 368. By October 2012, the Gibraltarian participation had started recovering with a 7% increase in one year.
The training is being provided in the skills that are required after a skills audit has identified the demand. This is what was promised in December in the 2011 General Election and also there is a budget of £12 million a year which was identified in the election campaign in 2011. This was when the GSD admitted that paying £1,000 a month to trainees who were persons without jobs would cost over £11 million, showing that the true number of persons without work was over 1,000 and not the 450 registered as the officially unemployed.
The level of employment of Gibraltarians has increased precisely because of the participation of over a hundred employers in taking on trainees. The Government is grateful for the support it has had from the private firms involved and does not accept that the names of these employers have to be provided to Mr Bossino so that he can be convinced that, so far, 546 individuals have been able to obtain employment following participation in the training programme.
This is the information provided by the employment service in answer to his questions in Parliament which he can believe or not as he wishes.
The claim of having had a structured training in the last 15 years of the GSD is laughable.
It is only since 2012 for example that training of any kind has been provided for persons wanting to obtain employment as carers and the results are that the numbers in employment have increased considerably in this area.
The Government budget for training is the amount that is required to meet the needs of the market and delivers a manifesto commitment. The GSD, who wasted millions when in Government in grandiose projects, is in no position to question the expenditure which is being incurred by investing in the future of our people instead of investing in white elephants like an air terminal designed to meet demand from Spain for which there was no evidence other than the imagination of the architect.
