Do you want to report "Why is it so hard to be successful as a young person in Jamaica?"
I want to be employed and make enough money to create a substantial savings account which can be used to buy a house, car and sustain a family of 4-5. Pretty simple, I have two degrees and I’m not picky about where I work or what I do. I just want to be hired for a reasonable wage which doesn’t seem possible for young people in Jamaica
Get a real estate license which takes 1 month at Utech, buy a camera, start a Youtube page and broadcast all your listings and hustle hustle hustle.
Or start some kinda business. The reality is the 9-5 corporate world isn’t going to get you to where you want to be without connections. Even the pan chicken man better off than most graduates, off red hills road they’ve definitely been making the most $ of their lives since covid.
I’ll add to this but I don’t know if patreon is available in Jamaica but you if you are good in front of the camera create a patreon channel and get subscribers. Make a price tier list ($1, $5 and $10) and then upload your content, whatever it might be. Lol there are people who just react to videos on patreon
You have two degrees ( about 4 to 8 years of education ) and you can’t find decent emoyment? What did you study,? And if you spent all that time educatiating yourself for a certain industry or skill….what happened?
If your educated, and having trouble finding employment, have you thought about leaving the island?
this comment rite here bruv, it’s sad cause it’s true but you definitely kno what you’re talkin about. I swear on my life though when I make it/get the break I’m pushin for (it might not be a significant dent in this crappy economy) but I hope to change that…
I mean a friend here or a family member there can get a buss enuh don’t get me wrong but the bagga “links” ting or “it’s not what you kno but who you kno” business nah go stop if the people that complain about it and eventually make still practice the same thing
my advice though is to jus keep pushin for it cause it may not happen here but you can certainly be successful in other parts of the world
I think being able to buy a house while supporting a family including children, wouldn’t be feasible for someone under 30 in most countries in the world in this day and age in the absence of assistance from parents/other family.
At the very least, many young people who are committed to financial security are spending much of their 20s investing in advanced education and avoiding/delaying having children due to the financial implications.
What countries do you think would fit those expectations? I can’t imagine it would be any other Caribbean countries for sure
It’s quite common in the developed world my friend. We are here to discuss the climate of these developing countries which is limiting the earning ability of the younger generations in the hope of shedding some light on this problem which is affecting many youth in our modern society
>It’s quite common in the developed world my friend.
On a serious note OP, this is very uncommon. I can see this being feasible at best, in some European countries due to the low cost of education. If you run a quick search on google for ‘average age of home ownership (insert country)’ - filter by images to see the graphs to avoid having to filter through text, you’ll see that most first time home owners are over 30 and the median ages are somewhere between 40 and 50.
It’s easy to think things are horrible here but the grass usually seems greener on the other side.
26 year old Canadian here, it’s not super common. It is very hard to own a house under 30 unless that is your primary goal and you’re willing to do anything to get it. (Unless you just inherit riches or something of course).
The only places where houses are affordable is where there is no work to afford it
Before 30? No, not at all, not in the slightest. I work in IT, one of the highest paying fields in the US one of the richest countries, not only that but I made a good nationally based salary while living in low cost of living state. So with higher pay around cheaper houses, I should be the one able to do this. I barely bought my house well after 30, only engaged so no kids. Yet when I did it none of my peers my age had done it yet and that’s before the recent inflation… and now several years later most my peers still haven’t in a time when prices have skyrocketed and the dream is out of reach for many even two-income families.
This idea of success is just not a modern reality.
I live in the US and it’s called barely able to pay rent on an apartment, car pymt,, and try to keep up with the bills. Forget a family or putting money in savings! People are graduating from college and end up working on McDonalds for minimum wage because employers want experience. I can’t even imagine trying in JA. The minimum wage there just went up to the equivalent of $57/week in the US. That would maybe cover food here but that’s it.
Tons of reasons! For one, lack of education. There are no investment opportunities. No sense of community. I think if the government would create jobs and collect taxes properly then they could re allocate those funds into the economy. With the tourist industry, marijuana, coffee or chocolate , fishing, and Music those are all great places to start.
Maybe teaching the younger generation about coding or tech. Creating campaigns for companies like Google or Apple to donate money to schools in order for the kids to learn.
It’s tough but if I were you I would look to the tourist sector for something.
Most people are looking to leave the island because they think it’s bad in Jamaica but it’s bad all over.
Most of this are already in existence it’s just that they are done on a smaller scale. For example a lot of people don’t know about investing even though the resources are there. A lot of people don’t know the resources out there and a lot of these resource’s aren’t marketed outside of the corporate area
Be unique. Offer something that is worthy of a wage , that nobody else offers? Something that can create real-occurring revenue. A monthly fee if you will.A product , a service, something.Be reasonable , start small and grow.Make it easy for potential customers to do business with you, they can be your best sales and marketing people. Word of mouth is huge. Once again , it has to be unique. Good luck and keep us updated
I don’t think their the only ones at fault. It’s easy to just throw our hands up and blame the government but that means we have to look to them to fix it which I don’t think their capable of… Why not blame some of these big companies that refuse to retire some of their dinosaurs and free up the job market for young ambitious Jamaicans?
Our culture do not promote Entrepreneurship. Go to school get a good education and then work for someone else to build their dreams. If you look at the comments, everyone talking about job opportunities. What can you do for Jamaica.
The system is set up for you to fail unless you were born into a position where it is possible for you to break through the initial stages of investing /working/education by having a leg up on the competition.
Essentially the economy has declined so rapidly that in the space of one generation it has become next to impossible for any income earned to be applied in a manor that would constitute a successful venture .
( TLDR) What was easy for your grandparents was hard for your parents and impossible for you.
The opportunities might be slim to none/non-existent. The old way of making money is deeply entrenched in the mindset i.e. go to school, do well so you can get a good job; the idea of entrepreneurship is never given much consideration. And even when it is, most don’t have the startup capital, the business fails within a year, dependent on the community, the moment your business takes off and you start making money, you instantly become a target. Dependent on the community, the mindset of the people might be that, “if I didn’t make it out of this poverty/ghetto then how can you, or rather, how dare you!?” The only”opportunities” are to be initiated into a gang, run a scam or any form of drug/gun-running. At this level, they’re only able to hold on to simple ideas like, “mi haffi tek care a mummy” n, most recently, “me woulda dead fi [insert gang leader/gang itself]”. Education is expensive and not everyone can afford it and not everybody that gets educated is guaranteed a job though it doesn’t stop educators from at least hinting, if not insinuating, that you might have a chance if you do really well. Here comes the harsh reality that, “a links run di ting”. Success is always out of reach as there just aren’t enough adequately funded social programs that aren’t politically motivated. The chance to leave the country is never really considered until most have something on their record, have had some trauma induced upon them by some family member/friends, that sends them spiralling, getting pregnant and/or ending up in a job they hate, doesn’t pay well enough/consistently/at all, has a lot of work, [unnecessary work] due to poor management, which may have caused or has contributed to a known/unknown chronic debilitating health condition, if they weren’t already subjected to/afflicted by, due to poor health facilities/lack thereof, that may have been hereditary, 1 or 2 immunization doses away from being prevented, maiming, physical grievous bodily harm, amputation, special needs etc. . . .
