Managerial and Labor Climate in Haiti

Overall, Haiti’s labor and managerial climate is not doing so well.  While, Haiti is a free market economy that enjoys the advantages of low labor costs, the results of the 2010 earthquake are still taking a toll in both of these areas. The labor force in Haiti is a whopping 4.81 billion. The issue is that there are not enough skilled people in the labor force. Two thirds of all Haitians make their living in the agricultural industry and unfortunately that industry was mostly destroyed by the earthquake. This has forced many farmers to start over with their businesses. As of the end of 2010, Haiti’s unemployment rate spiked to 40.6%. There is widespread unemployment and underemployment. In addition, more than two thirds of the labor force does not have jobs. The top three industries for jobs in Haiti are agriculture (38.1%), industry (11.5%) and services (50.4%).

The people of Haiti want to rebuild the economy; their problem is that they don’t necessarily have the resources to do so on their own. According to Daniel Jean-Louis, who is the Partners Worldwide partnership manager in Haiti, "the best way to help Haiti is to purchase goods and services locally." He adds that "it's essential for the long-term growth of the Haitian economy." A pasta manufacture, SPIA-Stanco, is a local business that has been around since 1978. At the time of the earthquake, he was employing over 200 Haitians in the manufacturing district of Port-au-Prince, and distributing the product through hundreds of microenterprise sales around the country. After the earthquake, since a lot of the crops had been destroyed, he had to severely cut down on his employees. He has always prided himself that even though the company has faced hard times, he still has made the local pasta affordable to the poor." His goal for his business and for the economy of Haiti is that they both build themselves back up. He adds "my best contribution to my country is to create jobs to overcome challenges together-to create opportunities for others".  If only everyone in Haiti had this positive attitude, rebuilding their managerial and labor climate would be much easier.