Skilled workers needed!

Barbados is facing a deepening construction labour crisis, warn industry leaders as major firms struggle to find masons, carpenters and other skilled workers as demand surges to unprecedented levels.

Chief executive officer (CEO) of the JADA Group Philip Tempro told the Sunday Sun: “We should be focusing on skills training on this island and mentorship programmes but instead, we focus on university degrees.

You can’t construct a nation with doctors and lawyers. You need carpenters, masons, labourers, plumbers and electricians.”

Tempro said Barbados was “scratching the surface” when it came to generating skilled labourers, evidenced by the number of idle youth on various blocks.

Mentorship

“They should be out there doing mentorship programmes and working in skills training. But it’s not just that, it’s all the different areas, because as construction increases, machinery is needed more. So you need more operators, you need more people to service them, you need more mechanics and everything increases.

So the entire industry needs a lot of work and a lot of people, so I definitely think the focus for the country in its projections to grow and to develop has to focus on skills training,” he said.

Tempro said JADA was fortunate to work with long-standing subcontractors and employees, but they still had to import labour.

“If you wanted to go out tomorrow and find ten good carpenters, good luck. It’s not easy, even in the Caribbean. The north Caribbean is super busy and even in some of the southern Caribbean islands such as St Lucia and Grenada, they have hotels building. People thought that the floodgates would open from these islands [with free movement] but that hasn’t been the case,” he said.

Reached out

Managing director of C.O. Williams Construction Neil Weekes said they were struggling to find specialised labour, such as masons and carpenters, as well as high-skilled labourers. As such, they had reached out, first to the region, then internationally, for workers.

“It is not easy. In the region, we have to recognise opportunities abound in Guyana, so a lot of the skilled labourers are going to work in the oil industry there.

“Another challenge is the language barrier – a lot of the very skilled mechanics and such are from Latin America and only speak Spanish.

Some are bilingual but some are not, so we have to employ interpreters, which is another cost,” he said.

Weekes said housing and transportation for the imported workers were also major expenses, adding there needed to be dialogue on how to reduce these costs.

Executive chairman of the Maloney Group of Companies Mark Maloney said the current demand for additional labour was not driven by any intention to disadvantage local workers, but rather by the reality that workforce demand was now outstripping available supply.

“As businesses grow, the need for skilled workers grows with them.

What we are seeing is many Guyanese workers who were previously here have returned home to take advantage of opportunities there and a number of Barbadians have also chosen to work overseas . . . often to be closer to family or to pursue new prospects. This naturally reduces the available labour pool,” he said.

Maloney said the Maloney Group continued to prioritise Barbadian workers and only a relatively small percentage of their staff came from overseas. He added that bringing in specialised workers could strengthen the local economy and enhance the skill base of Barbadian professionals once it was done properly and responsibly.

“We always prefer to hire locally but the reality is that demand is extremely high. International construction firms operating in Barbados are also hiring local workers and that places even greater pressure on the available workforce.

“Importing labour, when done in the right way, helps transfer skills, knowledge and experience. It makes our local workforce even more adaptable. The key is ensuring that all parties collaborate, that workers are treated fairly and that the process benefits everyone. When that happens, there is real opportunity for growth and for strengthening our local capabilities,” he said.

Maloney said labour mobility worked both ways and that they had recently hired a Barbadian who was working in China and was fluent in Mandarin.

“Talent moves where opportunities exist and Barbados is no different.”

Decline in unemployment

In October, Central Bank Governor Dr The Most Honourable Kevin Greenidge, in delivering the Review of the Barbados Economy from January to September, said unemployment numbers were on the decline, partially driven by the building boom.

The report stated there were gains in the non-traded sector, driven by construction and other services. The non-traded sector expanded by 2.2 per cent in the first three quarters of 2025 as construction activity increased by 6.1 per cent across private hotel, residential and commercial projects, alongside public investments in infrastructure and cultural facilities.

The unemployment rate fell to 6.1 per cent at the end of June, the lowest on record and marked a fifth consecutive quarterly decline. This was primarily thanks to sectors such as agriculture, utilities, tourism, construction, transportation and storage and finance, the report stated. (CA)

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