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Este informe no está disponible en español. CARIBBEAN BUSINESSLabor Department To Initiate $5M Job-Needs PollStudy will determine job requirements, industry growth & decline, help develop training to create jobsBY LIDA ESTELA RUAÑODecember 13, 2001 Labor Secretary Victor Rivera announced that his department would start polling 50,000 employers in March to determine labor market needs and formulate public policies that fulfill these. The $5 million study aims to determine the island’s job needs for the next decade. It will also determine–by geographical area–the industries that are growing most rapidly, those that are predominant, and those in decline. "We must obtain accurate information about job needs in Puerto Rico so that universities and other educational and vocational institutions get in the loop," Rivera said. "We will also know which workers are likely to lose their jobs and can develop training programs to provide skills for job alternatives." Rivera said that the profiles would also allow them to know what factors are limiting industry growth and would help the Calderon administration create jobs. Meanwhile, employment statistics prepared by the Labor Department’s Statistics Bureau have been under fire. "Right now, we are evaluating the methodology used to assess the number of employed and unemployed individuals, which has not been revised for 50 years," Rivera said. Labor Deputy Secretary Vilma Molina said there were 4,000 unemployment appeal cases in January, and 5,000 claims pending at the Insurance Office of Non-Occupational Work Disability. Those cases were all dispensed within six months. The Department has also reduced its Legal Bureau’s recruitment of 24 external law firms to four. Rivera said Labor filled five internal vacancies and now has a legal staff of 20. He has also cut perks, eliminated credit cards and limited official cars to two, his and Molina’s. The bureau receives an average of 2,500 complaints, of which about 60% end up in court. "Now we are setting up an accountability process so that we know exactly how many employee complaints are brought to court and how much compensation is paid to the laborer," Rivera said. Looking over his first year as head of a department that is celebrating its 70th anniversary, the 34-year-old former university professor said one of his main objectives has been maintaining peace in the labor sector. He uses a network of personal contacts to achieve this. Rivera has also visited the 10 regional offices where employees have told him that he was the first secretary to pay them a call in more than a decade. "The labor movement knows I have an open-door policy," he said. Labor leaders used to only come to the department when they were called in for mediation during a strike, Rivera said. Rivera has also changed is how allocations from the Bureau for the Development of Job Opportunities are distributed. This year $30.4 million was allocated, of which $22 million went to municipalities, $3 million was used for administrative purposes, and the balance paid part of the fund’s deficit, which Rivera hopes to eliminate in a couple of years. He said 6,188 jobs were either created or retained as a result of the allocation. The Labor Department has 1,043 employees and an annual budget of $115 million, 65% of which is for payroll. Rivera said he brought 15 people and recruited another 20 from the department "as my top staff, not knowing their political preference because my only concern is providing excellent service." This Caribbean Business article appears courtesy of Casiano Communications.
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