Survey Reveals Strategies to Strengthen USVI's Shrinking Labor Force

A recently concluded labor force survey of the U.S. Virgin Islands has revealed several opportunities to strengthen and grow the territory’s shrinking labor pool.

A myriad of economic shocks caused by the 2017 hurricanes, the closure of the Limetree Bay refinery, and the Covid-19 pandemic have shrunk the territory’s population, and consequently, the number of people available to work. The current unemployment rate currently stands at approximately 3.2 percent.

The results and insights from the survey were presented to the Committee of Education and Workforce Development by Collin Perciballi, a consultant with Lightcast, a company specializing in labor market analytics. He told lawmakers that despite “a scarcity of workers competing for more job opportunities…we came up with ways forward to address these new challenges.”

Chief among them was aligning career and technical education with cross-cutting skills. According to Mr. Perciballi, training a workforce that has the “flexibility to fill multiple different roles” will bode well for labor market efficiency. A second recommendation was ensuring foundational and soft skills including computer literacy at the K-12 level and in adult education programs. Lightcast’s survey also encouraged addressing “enrollment decline” in schools, a natural result of a declining population. Their recommendation includes offering scholarships to Virgin Islander families who have moved to the mainland or other countries.