Locals’ preference for gov’t jobs blamed for high unemployment By ALDWIN R. FAJARDO

The government is beefing efforts to lure local workers into private sector jobs in order to reduce the apparently high unemployment rate among U.S. citizens in the Northern Marianas, which is at least three times higher than anywhere in the mainland America.

Commonwealth Development Authority Chair John S. Tenorio said the present condition in the islands is more of voluntary unemployment, pointing out that majority of the local labor force still prefer government jobs than applying for vacant positions in the private sector.

“They chose to be in that situation. It is either they don’t want to work for the private sector where there are more than sufficient job opportunities, or they just don’t like to work at all,” he said.

Workers of Chamorro and Carolinian descent were concentrated in public administration (34.9 percent and 28.1 percent respectively), professional and related services (22 percent and 24.6 percent), and retail trade industries (11.6 percent).

Because of their apparent preference for government jobs, local workers have been consistently outnumbered by foreign manpower in the private sector.

At present, there are more than 20,000 Filipino workers, close to 17,000 Chinese and some 1,300 Koreans in the CNMI.

The 1999 first quarter report, prepared by the commerce department’s Central Statistics Division, noted that unemployment rate among native-born U.S. citizens in the CNMI reached 13.4 percent during the first three months of the year.

Of the 10,438 U.S. citizens in the local labor force, 9,039 or 86.6 percent are employed while 1,399 or 13.4 percent are without jobs.

The U.S. interior department’s Office of Insular Affairs has said many American labor markets have a measly average of 4.2 percent unemployment rate among native-born U.S. citizens.

The highest unemployment rates in the mainland U.S. stayed within the single-digit level and have been reported in the District of Columbia (7.6%) and New Mexico (6.4%).

However, the CNMI government’s statistics represent only the number of Americans 16 years and above who are in the local labor force. The report said there are 15,251 persons above 16 years, while only around 10,438 are actually in the labor force.

The CDA chairman maintained the CNMI continues to enjoy a very low rate of unemployment but added that what makes the situation alarming is the presence of too many job opportunities in the private sector.

Unemployment rate among native-born U.S. citizens in the CNMI is at least four times higher than that of the nonresident sector which was recorded to have reached a mere 3.2 percent during the same period.

Only 1,143 of the total 39,290 non-U.S. citizens above 16 years old in the CNMI were unemployed. Nonresidents also posted a whooping 96.8 percent employment mainly because they come here to work, and those unable to find job after their previous contract expires are sent home.

The 13.4 percent unemployment rate, although lower than the previous year of the same quarter’s 14.3 percent, is clearly manifested by the increase in the number of food stamp recipients which jumped 18 percent during the October 1998-April 1999 period.

With this increase, the Nutritional Assistance Program now incurs close to $350,000 in monthly expenses for a total of 4,501 recipients.