Archive for March 21st, 2010
DER appeals to the unemployed to get in touch
(CNS): With almost 400 jobs registered with them each month, the Department of Employment Relations is urging the unemployed to make contact with the office. The department is now linked directly with immigration, making sure the boards know when a suitable and qualified Caymanian is available. However, the DER says it is is having trouble tracking down the 800 or so people registered with the department. Speaking to CNS at this weekend’s Chamber Career’s Expo, Jennifer Smith, the acting DER director, said that in the latest audit the department had struggled to make contact with almost half of the people registered as their contact details were out of date.
Smith said if people wanted to find work they must ensure that when they changed their telephone numbers and other contact details they let the department know immediately.
“The main problem for us at the moment is the inability to contact people,” Smith told CNS, urging people to contact the office. “We really need everyone who has registered with us to let us know what their status is, especially if they are still looking for work. We can’t place people if we can’t contact them and when we give contact numbers to potential employers they expect them to be correct.”
She said anyone who has registered with the DER but has not heard from the department in the last two weeks should call the office and let the staff know if they are still looking and if so what their new contact details are. Smith explained that there were lots of vacancies in the job bank and anyone who is looking for work should register with them as soon as possible so the staff there can begin to help them find a job.
“We are now directly linked with the Immigrations Department so we are able to exchange data and the boards can make more informed decisions,” she said, explaining that if unemployed Caymanians were not registered with the DER they could miss out on potential career openings. “We really are encouraging people to come and see us. We have jobs; we can help,” Smith added.
With a fully manned stand at the Chamber’s Career and Training Expo, the team at the Department of Employment Relations said they were hoping to meet with people andencourage them to use the department’s services.
A number of changes have been taking place over the last few months, and aside from the development of the data base linked to the Immigration Department, the DER is also working with the Ministry for Labour on the new ‘National Employment Passport’, which will focus on helping unemployed Caymanians get back to work or get into work for the first time through training and development programmes that will help match the skills of those people out of work to the jobs that the local community needs people for.
At the openingof the Expo Minister Rolston Anglin explained that the first phase of the initiative would focus heavily on equipping the country’s young people with the skills they need to make them able to compete in the local job market. Given that the rate of youth unemployment is currently at 38%, he said the need to ensure youngsters aged between 18 and 24 were employable was more pressing than ever before. The minster with responsibility for labour and training said this was not some feel-good government programme to make people think the administration was doing something; it was all about employability of the country’s young people and providing business with a local workforce that met their commercial needs.
Germany no-go for bankers
(Reuters): Credit Suisse is restricting bankers’ travel to Germany after authorities there said they had launched 1,100 tax evasion probes against the bank’s clients and were investigating staff on suspicion of aiding evasion. The probe into Switzerland’s second-largest bank by assets relates to a CD with client data bought by the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. "We already have restrictions on travel in place and now these are being applied very strictly in the case of Germany," a Credit Suisse spokesman told Reuters on Sunday. "As far as I know we have had no contact with the German authorities and cannot comment further," he said.