Running head: ASSIGNMENT #1 - UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE CAYMAN ISLANDS

Assignment #1- Unemployment in the Cayman Islands

Lara A. Pacheco
International College of the Cayman Islands
SO-201: Introduction to Sociology
Instructor: S'Rah Yisrael

ASSIGNMENT #1 - UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE CAYMAN ISLANDS

Interview
The purpose of this interview is to point out one of the major social problems that many
people experience around the world, specifically in the Cayman Islands. According to The
Cayman Islands Compendium of Statistics 2015 (2016), the unemployment rate decreased from
4.7% in 2014 to 4.2% in the past year (The Economics and Statistics Office, 2016). I conducted
an interview to discover some of the reasons why there are people, specifically non-Caymanians,
who find it difficult getting a job in this country. It took 6 months for this person to find a fulltime job. She is a 21-year-old who recently graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Business
Administration with a concentration in Accounting. She was born in the Philippines, but she
considers the Cayman Islands as her home country since migrating in 2010. Even though she has
a permanent residency as a dependent of her mother, it does not give her any privilege when it
comes to finding a job. The purpose of this residency only applies for staying in the Cayman
Islands until she turns 24 years old (personal communication, November 3, 2016).
Before she graduated in February 2016, she was already looking for a job which involved
going to recruitment agencies, emailing companies for a job opening, and asking relatives and
friends for help. Since she did not find a job before graduating, she had no choice but to leave the
island she considers home to go to Qatar. She spent 6 months there sending out resumes and
applications. She sent a hundred applications, not only in the Cayman Islands, but also in Qatar,
Singapore, Malaysia, Canada, Unites States, New Zealand, and Brazil. Months went by and
hopelessness started taking over her situation. She also mentioned in the interview that it came to
a point where she started questioning herself. She started doubting her abilities, if she is doing
something wrong, if her efforts are not enough, or if she wasnt good enough. Thankfully, one of
her friends since 9th grade is related to the principal of the school they went to, Wesleyan

ASSIGNMENT #1 - UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE CAYMAN ISLANDS

Christian Academy. Her friend asked the principal if there was an opening and they offered her a
teaching job. She graduated there as Valedictorian and since she is already familiar with the
schools system, it gave her an advantage in getting the position. After a few e-mail exchanges,
they decided to give her a work permit and hired her as a Junior High Supervisor (personal
communication, November 3, 2016).
It took her a long time to get a job because of the islands focus on a persons status. In
order to get an entry or high-level jobs in the Cayman Islands, the immigration requires
companies to hire a person who is a Caymanian or those who possess a Caymanian Status or a
Permanent Residency that is effective for working (personal communication, November 3,
2016).
There is an auditing firm called BDO where she had internship for three consecutive
summers. On her final summer, before she graduated, the firm started discussing about a fulltime job that they are willing to give her, because they were impressed with her work ethics.
They were already working on what is going to be in the contract, until it came to the point
where they discussed her immigration papers. The company consulted the immigration to ask for
ways on how they can hire her, but they turned them down. The immigration insisted that BDO
cannot hire her because she is an expatriate without status or Permanent Residency. According to
them, they can only hire entry-level employees if they are natural born Caymanian, has
Caymanian Status, or Permanent Residency (personal communication, November 3, 2016).
Based on her experience, not having a status is just one of the problems she faced. She
was also discriminated because of her nationality. She shared a story that I found unethical and
unprofessional. There is a liquidation firm she tried to apply to for her internship where she had a
few exchange-mail exchanges with the human resource department. She said there was a good

ASSIGNMENT #1 - UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE CAYMAN ISLANDS

flow in their exchange; she even thought that they are going to hire her until the lady asked the
question, Where are you from?. She responded by saying she is from the Philippines and she
never heard from the human resource department after that (personal communication, November
3, 2016).
After talking to my interviewee about her views and experiences with unemployment, I
agree with the things she said. I personally, experienced rejection and discrimination, just
because I do not possess my own status and that I am not from this country. Before I enrolled at
International College of the Cayman Islands, I was supposed to find a job and apply for work
permit as a back-up plan, because my application for dependency under my mothers Permanent
Residency as a government employee had a chance of being disapproved. Just like what my
interviewee experienced, I also had the chance of being hired multiples times. There was a guy
who is working for a recruitment agency and he emailed me saying that he came across my
resume and he believes that I am qualified for the position. We talked about it and he asked about
my status. I told him that I am still under my mothers Permanent Residency and I will have to
get a work permit so that I can take the job. Sadly, they were looking for people who are
Caymanian or have status. Another opportunity I missed is the full-time job that IT Outsource
Ltd. offered me at the end of my internship and it ended the same way. I did not get it, only
because I did not have the papers.
I understand that the government prioritizes the locals first. However, they should let
companies hire people who they think are much more qualified. If an expatriate has more
qualifications and experiences, then why does the government have to stop companies from
hiring them? These laws also make the Caymanians, especially the young ones, to think that it is
alright for them to only get a high school diploma and to not even try to pursue a higher

ASSIGNMENT #1 - UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE CAYMAN ISLANDS

education, because they are confident that they will get the job, even though there is an expatriate
without status but with more experience than them.
It is depressing to know that immigrants, including Filipinos, who have Bachelors and
Masters degree, are working as a cashier, janitor, or nanny when they could be working for
companies such as Walkers, Butterfield and Deloitte.
Research
To clarify the concept of unemployment in the Cayman Islands, I conducted a research
and found what employers expect from applicants, and the types of unemployment that affects
both Caymanian and non-Caymanians. According to The Cayman Islands Compendium of
Statistics 2015 (2016), there is an unemployment rate of 6.2% for Caymanians and 2.5% for nonCaymanians in the past year (The Economics and Statistics Office, 2016). The rate for nonCaymanians or work permit holders is usually low because they are not allowed to stay in the
country without a job. However, for Caymanians, there are number of reasons why they cannot
find jobs. In the article written by Charles Duncan (2016), he pointed out things that explain why
there are Caymanians who do not have a job. He started off with the employers observation. It
states that employers think that the primary reason is that there is a lack of experience,
knowledge, and skills in literacy and mathematics while frequent tardiness or absence, and lack
in higher education and soft skills are also included in the list (Duncan, 2016).
Caymanian employees who tend to come to work late or not bother at all is the main
reason for them to be terminated. In Duncans article, it states that 73% of employees who do
this were led to being fired. Another reason why employees can get fired is because they tend to
be disrespectful to coworkers or customers (Duncan, 2016).

ASSIGNMENT #1 - UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE CAYMAN ISLANDS

A lot of Caymanians were only able to finish high school and there are others who did not
even reach it. This is an important part for employers because having higher education will show
that they have at least the basic skills for you to perform your job. As stated in the article, In
2014, about 70 percent of more than 1,500 unemployed Caymanians had a high school education
or less. (Duncan, 2016)
Lastly, in the employers observation, there are job seekers who do not have the soft
skills. These are characteristics that an employee must have to show that he or she can efficiently
interact with coworkers and customers.
What I found interesting in the article is that, after the list of all the employers
expectations, a job seekers response is maybe that experience is dependent on gaining
employment, so their lack of experience is because they have not been given the opportunity to
gain it. (Duncan, 2016). I think many of the newly graduates experience this. It is hard to find a
job if you are just in your early 20s and most jobs that are related to the degree you graduated
with are looking for people who already has 10 years of experience.
According to the government report of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Employment
(2015), there are four types of unemployment that occurs in the Cayman Islands and these are:
Cyclical Unemployment, Frictional Unemployment, Seasonal Unemployment, and Structural
Unemployment. Cyclical Unemployment is the result of an imbalance between the number of job
seekers and the number of jobs available due to a recession or downturn in the economy and
resulting in a fall in aggregate demand (Inter-Ministerial Committee, 2015). For example, people
chose to stay at home instead of spending summer vacation at a hotel like Marriott. Marriott will
then need to lay off some of their employees because they are not getting enough guests and
therefore, they do not have enough income to pay all the employees.

ASSIGNMENT #1 - UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE CAYMAN ISLANDS

The next type is Frictional Unemployment, which is transitional unemployment due to

people moving between jobs. It also includes people joining the labor force for the first time such
as high school leavers or university graduates and mothers and housewives returning to the labor
market (Inter-Ministerial Committee, 2015). This specific type of unemployment is what my
interviewee experienced which lasted 6 months.
The other type is Seasonal Unemployment which is an unemployment that arises due to
the closure of the business and it occurs during certain times of the year. In comparison to
Cyclical Unemployment, Seasonal has a pattern (Inter-Ministerial Committee, 2015). An
example of this is landscaping. Workers that are employed in landscaping companies,
specifically in countries where it snows during winter, will experience this type. No client will
need their lawn or bushes to be cut when it is covered with snow. Another example are lifeguards
that work at water parks or specifically at Turtle Farm, may experience Seasonal Unemployment.
During summer, a lot of people visit there because it can be very hot, therefore, lifeguards are
needed. However, during winter when temperature drops, less people will come and there will be
no need for lifeguards.
Lastly, structural unemployment is a more permanent level of unemployment resulting
from skills levels of job seekers not meeting the skills requirements of jobs available or from a
mismatch between the skills that workers are supplying versus the skills employers require
(Inter-Ministerial Committee, 2015). For example, in the field of technology, things change
rapidly from software to hardware. To be specific, think of web developers and web designers for
this example. If those people do not keep on improving their knowledge and skills, they will get
left behind and become unemployed especially here in Cayman, where there are a lot of people
that employers can choose from.

ASSIGNMENT #1 - UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE CAYMAN ISLANDS

In conclusion, unemployment due to lack of skills, knowledge, experience or the types of

unemployment people experience are just some of the things that normally happen to people. We
should not let these things discourage us from trying our best to find jobs. We have the power to
change and improve our skills so we can be able to find a job that can help us earn money to pay
for the things we need. It may seem easy to say and hard to do but nothing is impossible. I
believe that once you tried all your best and still failed, you should not regret it because at least
you tried. However, I think that there will always be a job for us and it should not matter if it is a
small or big one.

ASSIGNMENT #1 - UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE CAYMAN ISLANDS

Reference
Duncan, C. (2016). Report: Lack of skills, experience barriers to Caymanian employment.
Retrieved from https://www.caymancompass.com/2016/04/05/report-lack-of-skillsexperience-barriers-to-caymanian-employment/
Inter-Ministerial Committee. (2015). Review of Employment Policy and Strategy in
the Cayman Islands. Retrieved from www.education.gov.ky/portal/pls/portal/docs/1 /
12294446.PDF
The Economics and Statistics Office. (2016). The Cayman Islands Compendium of Statistics
2015. Retrieved from http://www.eso.ky/UserFiles/right_page_docums/files/uploads/the_
cayman_islands_compendium_of_statist-1.pdf