Commerce said due to the decreasing population, businesses are seeing their pool of workforce shrink.
The department estimates that 20,000 people have left the island since 2005.
The islands’ population peaked to 78,000 but is now down to about 55,000.
The exit of the garment industry is one of the prime reasons for the population decline, Commerce said.
Students studying off-island are also part of the “exodus.”
The government cannot solve the problem of out- migration but it can help create a better economy to make the current populace stay, Commerce said.
