Haiti’s Minister of Commerce and Industry (MCI), James Monazard, has publicly admitted that the state lacks a functional national system for tracking and measuring employment metrics. Speaking on the current affairs program Panel Magik, Monazard reiterated that job creation remains the absolute priority for regional recovery; however, he acknowledged that the government currently operates without any reliable or consistent indicators to assess the job market or evaluate labor trends.
The minister revealed that none of Haiti’s primary economic pillars—including the Bank of the Republic of Haiti (BRH), the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), or the MCI itself—publish consolidated statistics regarding job growth or layoffs. Within this data vacuum, the textile manufacturing sector is the only industry with available metrics, though these numbers are generated strictly by foreign investors and international organizations rather than local authorities. Highlighting the severity of the economic downturn, Monazard pointed to the Caracol Industrial Park, which sustained roughly 16,000 jobs prior to 2018 but has since seen its workforce collapse to fewer than 3,000 employees.
Monazard identified chronic political instability as the root cause of this institutional failure, noting that frequent political crises disrupt administrative continuity and block the implementation of long-term public policies. In response to this baseline deficit, the minister announced plans to lay the groundwork for a dedicated administrative division tasked with producing credible labor market data. He concluded that the absence of structured tracking harms not only policymakers but also academic researchers and entrepreneurs, emphasizing that Haiti cannot resolve its systemic security crisis without economic stabilization and structural job creation.
