Despite Guyana’s unprecedented growth over the years due to its lucrative oil finds, the country is grappling with an 89% emigration rate among its educated workforce, and is now witnessing one of the highest levels of brain drain globally.
According to a 2024 US State Department report, an alarming 89% of university-educated Guyanese nationals are leaving the country. This exodus of talent it said, is significantly impacting the nation’s labour market and has become a critical issue amid the country’s burgeoning oil and gas sector.
The brain drain is particularly noticeable in critical sectors such as healthcare and education. The departure of professionals, including nurses and teachers, is a significant concern. To address the severe shortage of healthcare workers, the Government of Guyana is considering recruiting nurses from Commonwealth nations.
In May, Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo announced the government’s decision to recruit healthcare workers from Bangladesh. He attributed the decision to a lack of healthcare workers across the country which has left the nation in dire need of additional healthcare workers to maintain quality care. He refuted claims of potential pay disparities between local and foreign recruits, asserting that foreign workers would not receive higher wages than their Guyanese counterparts in the public sector.
The opposition had criticized the government’s decision to authorize the recruitment of 500 Bangladeshi healthcare workers, both for the public and private sectors. They argued that the move lacks transparency and unfairly prioritizes foreign workers over local professionals which in itself contributes to brain drain.
While noting that the high emigration rate highlights the broader challenges within Guyana’s labor market, it highlighted the 2021 Guyana Labour Force Survey Third Quarter Report. This report revealed a labor force participation rate of 49.6%, paired with an unemployment rate of 14.5%.
It said the oil and gas boom, while bringing substantial investment, has exacerbated the tight labor market. The Local Content Act adds to the pressure by offering incentives for Guyanese companies to engage in the oil and gas sector. This has led to a migration of labor towards this high-paying industry, contributing to the tightening job market and fueling concerns about the so-called resource curse—a phenomenon where abundant natural resources may lead to economic instability rather than prosperity.
Compounding these issues is Guyana’s significant informal economy, which represents between 30% and 50% of the job market. In this regard, the U.S. report said many Guyanese are turning to self-employment in unregulated sectors, driven by the lack of formal job opportunities and the inadequate social safety net for the working-age population. It also noted that while the country has an old-age pension scheme, there are no equivalent safety nets for the working population, which further fuels economic insecurity.
