Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi, is adamant that there are “enormous employment opportunities” in Samoa.
These opportunities are available in sectors such as agriculture but he said “there are many who do not want to take it up.”
In making the point, Tuilaepa dismissed fears about Samoa’s high youth unemployment rate. According to the Prime Minister, it is not the unemployment figures that should be of concern, but rather people should look at the underemployment figures of our youth.
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The issue was raised by reporters during a press conference held at the Central Bank of Samoa (C.B.S.) yesterday, to address issues surrounding the upcoming Small Island Developing States (S.I.D.S.) conference.
It followed the Asian Development Bank’s (A.D.B.) Pacific Economic Monitor Midyear Review, which reported that at 16.1 per cent, Samoa has the highest youth unemployment figure in the South East Asia-Pacific Region.
Asked for a comment, Tuilaepa said that “when you talk economics, there is no such thing as unemployment.
“We have a term called underemployment. What does that mean?
“It means that we have enormous employment opportunities in agriculture and there are many who do not want to take it up. So it is talking in relative terms.
“It is the same thing in New Zealand. When you go to New Zealand you will find a situation where there is a lot of opportunities in the farming sector, in horticulture.
“But then we have to send people over from the islands to work to pick apples and pears.
“Why? Because those who are there do not want to work on the farms, they can get about equally the same amount of money from unemployment benefits.”
However, if one was to look at youth underemployment in Samoa the 16.1 per cent figure reported by the A.D.B. would be higher.
According to employment expert, Alison Doyle, the underemployment rate sits at a higher percentage than the unemployment rate because it includes a broader group of workers than those who are counted as unemployed.
“Underemployed workers may be working, but not in the capacity or at the level they desire,” she says.
“A worker is considered underemployed when they are working at a job they are over-qualified for, working part-time when they would prefer full-time work, or working at a low-wage job when they could, if jobs were available, be working more hours.”
Investopedia supports this saying that underemployment is different form unemployment in that the individual is working, but not to their full capacity.
For example, someone who is underemployed could be a qualified accountant working as a taxi driver, or someone who is working part-time but wanting fulltime work.
Earlier during the press conference, the Prime Minister did attempt to address the issue when a question about the inclusion of sports in the S.I.D.S. Accelerated Modalities of Action (S.A.M.O.A) Pathway draft outcome document was asked.
The draft outcome document refers to spots four times in two clauses.
The first time under clause 75 in regards to S.I.D.S. leading healthier lives and the second time on clause 82, as follows.
“Recognising the strong capacity of S.I.D.S. in sport, we support the S.I.D.S. use of sport as a vehicle to foster development, social inclusion and peace, strengthen education, promote health and build life skills, particularly among youth,” the document reads.
At the time Tuilaepa said that when sports is talked about at high level conferences, such as meetings of the Leaders of the Commonwealth, sports comes in under social development especially on youth employment and development.
“And for the many developing countries youth provide a big asset, an asset that needs to be developed otherwise youth can also present major problems if they are not gainfully employed,” he said.
“And sports become a major employment vehicle for the youths of today.
“Especially with huge contract packages that are being offered for their best sportsman in any kind of sport.”
The Prime Minster said that Samoa would stand to gain a lot because of the experience Samoans have making money from playing rugby overseas.
“And so when we talk about sports we are taking about employment for youth,” he said.
“Sports is no longer a kind of an area that you spend time on, now it is a professional engagement.
“It is no longer something to enjoy it is a professional engagement in which incomes are earned, very high incomes are earned for the players family and children.”
In the Sunday Samoan, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Labour’s C.E.O. Auelua Samuelu Enari, blamed the lack of access to financial resources as the cause.
“It is simply getting worse in our view due to among other things external factors highlighted above,” he said then.
“(The reason for this is) insufficient financial resources available to the youth to enable establishment of their own businesses through skill sets learnt.”
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