Economy & Business - April 2026

At the beginning of March, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Caribbean Community (Caricom) hosted its 10^th in a series of ‘Conversations on Migration in the Caribbean’, with the focus on ‘Migration and the Caribbean Workforce’. The strong message emerging from the discussions was that a combination of an aging population, declining birth rates, and outward migration is resulting in labour and skills shortages, particularly in sectors such as healthcare, education, construction, agriculture, and public services. Central to the discussion was an early 2026 International Labour Organization (ILO) study on ‘Free movement of persons in the CARICOM region: A labour market analysis’.