Caymanian employment and immigration minister Michael Myles has pushed back on a report that claims the Cayman Islands Government is structurally dependent on work permit revenue.
Marla Dukharan’s report, ‘Population, progress and the people of the Cayman Islands‘, published on 7 July, describes a work permit-driven “incentive loop”.
It says this encourages the government to keep the high-wage, foreign population growing as a vital source of income.
In written comments to Cayman Independent on 25 July, Myles accepted the mechanism but rejected certain conclusions.
“It is my view that our government – and successive governments before us – does not have a revenue challenge,” he said, adding: “We earn more than enough to operate effectively.
“I do agree with her statement that ‘population growth via foreign labour is also an important source of government revenue’, however, the broader context requires careful management.”
He described the demand for foreign labour as a reflection of Cayman’s “thriving economy”, adding: “We simply have more jobs available than we have Caymanians to fill them.
“That said, we must put significantly more planning into helping our local students transition from graduation into full-time employment,” he said.
Student transition
Myles explained that while the government invests tens of millions of dollars a year in scholarships for Caymanian students, employment challenges persist.
“Far too many of our young people face uphill battles finding jobs after graduating,” he said.
“It remains too easy for employers to pass over Caymanians citing a lack of experience or qualifications, even while submitting work permit applications for non-Caymanians with similar profiles.
“When job-ready Caymanians are left out of the workforce, it drives up our overall cost of living, as the government must step in with financial assistance to support affected families.
“Ensuring that every job-ready Caymanian is gainfully employed directly helps lower costs across housing, healthcare, and social assistance programmes.”
Regarding the lack of a skills-gap analysis highlighted in Dukharan’s report, Myles said one had been completed.
He pointed to a 2023 study, commissioned by the University College of the Cayman Islands and the EU-funded RESEMBID programme, and conducted by Market Research Services Limited.
That study looked specifically at needs in hospitality and tourism, solar photovoltaic work, information communication and technology, and construction.
It identified challenges in hiring locally for hospitality, tourism and ICT jobs due to the difficulty in finding employees with specific skillsets, such as culinary expertise and software development capacities, and anticipated a shift in the workforce away from “unskilled labour” towards “semi-skilled employees”.
The study also warned that without concerted effort, Cayman could see a growing reliance “on non-nationals with work permit for required skill sets” as businesses expand.
Go deeper: Why Cayman’s permit numbers are a symptom, not the disease
