As the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) region forges ahead with plans to establish an OECS Economic Union by 2009, the OECS Secretariat is embarking on several initiatives to develop enhanced support systems for the proposed union. 

One such initiative is a collaborative undertaking with the Caribbean Sub-regional Office of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in developing and implementing an OECS Labour Market Information System.

The immediate objective of this project is to design and adopt across all OECS Member States a comprehensive Labour Market Information system. The project when completed will comprise an integrated institutional structure; updated data sources for the information system – household surveys, enterprise based surveys and dedicated administrative databases, including those of Departments of Labour, National Insurance Agencies and Ministries of Agriculture; and an information dissemination system based on input in key official reports and a public internet based “one window” facility.

At present the intention is to pilot the Statistics Department component of the project (i.e. the household survey and establishment based survey) in Grenada and the remaining components in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (i.e. the Department of Labour, the National Insurance Agency and the Ministry of Agriculture components). Both aspects of the pilot phase of the project are to be finalised, officially endorsed by all participating entities and fully launched by January, 2009. Following the pilot stage of the project the intention is to replicate the model in the other OECS Member State, subject to the availability of donor and national counterpart funding.