Unemployment stifling Lennox Bigwoods
The residents of Lennox Bigwoods, which forms part of the larger township of Darliston in Westmoreland, are crying out for work, even at a time when employment figures are at their highest across the country as reported by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica.
Theodore Williams, a businessman who operates a slaughterhouse, and a meat and grocery shop in the community, noted that a number of great people have come from the community, including judges, teachers and medical doctors.
Chief among them is Chief Justice Zaila McCalla, who became the seventh chief justice of jamaica and the first woman to hold such office since Independence.
Justice McCalla served from June 2007 before retiring in 2017.
Williams said that he has decided to live and operate his business in the community while providing employment to as many persons that he can afford to employ. He said 鈥淭he community is packed up with people of good, bad, and indifferent characters 鈥 when we say bad, we don鈥檛 have much violence inside here. But you have people who will work, and you have those who use their brain to work as scammers.鈥
While the Lennox Bigwoods residents are naturally proud of those who have made it to the top of their careers, a resident said there is one problem.
鈥淭he problem with that is they don鈥檛 come back to help point others to the prosperity route after they have climbed their academic and career ladders,鈥 a male resident said.
A female resident said, 鈥淧eople who are able to get employment have to travel several miles into Montego Bay to work in the call centres and hotels. Some of them don鈥檛 even come back because what they get for pay is not enough to cover the cost of transportation and their basic needs.鈥
She also complained about the condition of the roads.
鈥淭hey need fixing, and it seems that no one is listening to us,鈥 she said.