Labour report brings light to issues in the Cooks

Transcript

A new report is expected to provide the Cook Islands government with the foundation for addressing labour issues there.

The labour monograph is based on 2011 Census information and was produced with the assistance of the United Nations Population Fund.

Internal Affairs Secretary Bredina Drollet told Koro Vaka'uta how the report will help the government.  

BREDINA DROLLET: The data showed that there was relatively low unemployment which supports the perception that people have been saying that there are labour shortages. It also confirmed that the tourism industry and related services such as the accommodation and restaurant sector were the biggest employer in the Cook Islands. There was a lot things in there that just confirmed what people thought; the private sector is the largest employer with 65 percent of the labour force, so the public sector is 30 percent so it's a smaller employer. For me I think the most valuable data was that it confirmed high labour force participation by both men and women, it also showed that the average hourly wage for both men and women was fairly equal, and the other valuable data that I found was that the unemployment rate for men and women was also equal. So there was a lot of equality in the data that was coming out.

KORO VAKA'UTA: I guess in terms perception that were confirmed or otherwise that there has been talk about the issue of depopulation. What did the report show in regards to that issue?

BD: The data confirms that many of our young population -- ages 15 to 24 -- are leaving the Cook Islands and that this is placing pressure on labour supply. The data showed that 16 percent of the labour force are foreign workers and that's the result of Cook Islanders leaving. Almost one in three workers in the restaurant and accommodation sector alone, foreign workers. The data also confirmed there is high unemployment in the southern group of the Cook Islands, there is limited employment opportunities out there and the key reason why people leave. The census did also show that depopulation has effected both the southern and the northern group more than it has effected Rarotonga.

KV: In terms of the data that came out in this report, what showed an area of most urgent need to be addressed?

BD: The biggest issue, I think, is how do the government best address the labour shortages. As a society we need to ask ourselves, can we accept increasing the foreign worker population to ensure our economy continues to grow at the rate it has been, or what policies do we need to put in place to ensure we can attract Cook Islanders to return and fill those labour needs.    

KV: So how will this report be used?

BD: The report, firstly, gives us a clear benchmark of unemployment. Youth unemployment, our average hourly rates, it identifies the largest employment sectors. I mean benchmarking enables government to determine how it might measure improvements in the workforce at the national level. The Cook Islands became a member of the ILO this year, and one of the priority steps that we are looking at taking is to establish a national labour advisory committee, and that committee would comprise of government, employers and workers. So having this data enables a good basis for tripartite discussions on those longer term issues.