Guyana has halved both its youth and overall unemployment rates over the past four years, driven by an economic expansion that has generated more than 100,000 new jobs. The scale of this growth has produced an unusual problem for the small South American nation: employers now struggle to find enough trained workers to fill available positions.

The figures were announced by Senior Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh during the National Youth Skills Forum in Georgetown, an event held to mark World Youth Skills Day. Singh addressed an audience of young people, framing the country's labour market shift as both an achievement and a call to action.

Official data presented at the forum showed overall unemployment falling from 12.8% in 2020 to 6.8% in 2024. Youth unemployment declined more sharply still, from 30.2% to 12.1% over the same period. Singh noted that 104,000 jobs had been created in the past five years, a figure he described as substantial given Guyana's population of roughly 800,000. Few countries of comparable size have recorded job growth at this pace within such a short window.

The minister's central message concerned what he characterised as a mismatch between the speed of job creation and the pace at which the workforce is acquiring relevant skills. Vacancies now exist across construction, oil and gas, agriculture and public administration, among other sectors, and employers are competing for a limited pool of qualified applicants. Singh described the current climate as a seller's market for labour, one in which workers with the right training can expect to be in high demand rather than searching at length for employment.

Singh's advice to the young people in attendance was practical rather than abstract. He encouraged them to begin working or studying without waiting to settle on a long-term career path, arguing that early engagement with the labour market matters more than early certainty about its direction. He pointed to free technical training programmes as a route into skilled employment, and he encouraged those with entrepreneurial ambitions to consider starting small businesses rather than relying solely on formal employment. He also urged young people to set aside traditional assumptions about which jobs suit men and which suit women, telling the forum that Guyana's expanding economy no longer sustains such distinctions in practice.

The forum was positioned as one part of a wider government effort spanning education, employment and entrepreneurship. Singh referenced coordination with other state bodies, including the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport and the Board of Industrial Training, both of which run programmes aimed at preparing young Guyanese for the workforce. The government has framed skills training as a policy priority precisely because job creation has outstripped the supply of qualified candidates, rather than the reverse.

Guyana's economic transformation has been closely tied to its oil sector, which began commercial production in December 2019 and has since reshaped government revenue and public spending. The employment figures cited at the forum reflect the broader effects of that growth across construction, services and public infrastructure, sectors that have expanded alongside the oil industry rather than solely because of it.

Whether the labour shortage eases will depend largely on how quickly training programmes can produce workers with the qualifications employers require. Singh's remarks suggested the government views this as an urgent task rather than a long-term aspiration, with youth unemployment already low enough that further gains will require deliberate investment in skills rather than continued reliance on economic momentum alone.

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