The fact that some foreigners are getting jobs in Guyana is because locals’ labour cost may be overpriced and the foreign nationals are willing to work for less than Guyanese would, Minister of Finance Winston Jordan has suggested.
Speaking at a People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) press conference on July 26th, Jordan zeroed in on assertions that there is a lack of jobs for Guyanese in the present economy. He said the fact that a foreigner could be able to get a job shows that there are jobs available.
“…When Guyana had a number of people exiting in the 70s, 80s and 90s and so forth, people, when they went to those countries, people complained about how Guyanese were taking away their jobs. You hear Mexicans taking away the Americans jobs and so forth. A lot of this, you know, is not true because everybody would want to go with their natives first. The fact that you could get a job in a country above a native, what does it suggest? Many things, right? It suggests that the labour cost in that country is overpriced because if I am prepared to cut grass for $1,000 but the native wants $1,500, who are you going to employ?” Jordan reasoned. He said the assertions being made about there being no jobs is untrue since he has seen Venezuelans, Cubans, Brazilians, Nigerians and Haitians getting jobs in Guyana – “a country that supposedly don’t have jobs.”
