THE CNMI Department of Labor, in partnership with the State Workforce Development Board through the Office of the Governor, will hold a job fair from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. today, Friday, Aug. 26, at the Hyatt Regency Saipan.
The event — free and open to the public — will feature employers in the construction, manpower services, retail, and hospitality industries.
This year’s theme, “Rebuilding the Workforce of Tomorrow,” is geared toward addressing the impact of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic on the local workforce.
The event is fully funded by the over $1.5 million U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act Title I Grant for Program Year 2020.
According to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report on CNMI workforce trends and wage distribution, the Department of Homeland Security approved about 11,600 CNMI-Only Transitional Worker, or CW-1, foreign worker permits for 2019, and about 5,400 only in 2021, dropping over 60% from a high of 13,685 in Fiscal Year 2017.
According to the Prevailing Wage Study, an annual study of employers in the CNMI, the reported number of employees earning less than $8 per hour declined by 68% from 2019 to 2021.
The study showed that the CNMI workforce that currently earns above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour rose to 94% from 73% in 2019.
The PWS data also noted that low-wage industries, such as the retail sector, experienced disproportionately large workforce declines during the pandemic.
Unemployment payments during the pandemic made it more difficult to hire workers, which may have also contributed to the decline in employment of low-wage workers between 2019 and 2021.
It is unclear what the current unemployment rate is in the CNMI.
For more information regarding today’s job fair, call (670) 664-3190/6 or email jobfair2022.dol@gmail.com/.
