today's Bermuda job market, writes Paul Egan.

Bermuda faces a jobs mismatch. The Island employs thousands of contract workers, but Bermudian students return from college to find no jobs available in their chosen fields.

Mansfield (Jim) Brock, chairman of the Premier's Commission on Competitiveness, highlighted the problem in a recent convocation speech at Bermuda College.

"Whilst bright Bermudian students are undergoing training in areas where there are few available jobs, employers must look overseas for qualified staff in job categories where they are desperately needed ... in tourism and international business,'' Brock told the graduates.

The Island was clamouring for insurance and computer experts while more than 50 students were training for four available jobs in psychology, he noted.

Brock urged those who had not made a final career decision to "give serious consideration to pursuing careers where there is a high level of demand''.

Such a job gap is not unique. In Canada, where unemployment stands at 11.4 percent, thousands of jobs for electrical and mechanical engineers, computer experts, and other highly-skilled people cannot be filled, and companies are hiring abroad.

But in Bermuda, where unemployment is a novelty and the disparity between post-secondary studies and job vacancies can be more easily tracked, the phenomenon seems more avoidable.

In public accounting, where only 125 of the 473 members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants are Bermudian, the profession is working hard to spur change.

"As to why students are going into careers other than those that present a lot of job opportunities, I think that just shows that we need to put more effort into getting information about the jobs out to students,'' says Bill Jack, chairman of the Institute's public relations committee.

The Institute visits schools, holds receptions for graduates, and meets separately with school guidance counsellors.

There are now 36 Bermudians with university degrees enrolled in chartered accountancy programmes. That is "a healthy number,'' but for the past 20 years and the foreseeable future, "any Bermudian coming back as a qualified accountant has their choice of accounting firms,'' says Institute president Ian Davidson.

The Bermuda Bar Association still admits non-Bermudians in specialised areas.

But after near-exponential growth, the Bar could soon find itself facing the opposite problem the Institute does.

Bermuda now has 181 attorneys, with seven of them called to the Bar since May alone. Despite retirements and deaths, the Bar has grown from 50 in 1978, to 75 in 1983, to 100 in 1986, to 150 last year.

"We're starting to see in the last 12 months the first signs of what could be a problem, with Bermudians having to tramp around the streets, as it were,'' says Bar Association president John Cooper.

"Bermudians so far have been able to return to Bermuda and find employment in keeping with their qualifications,'' Cooper says. "How long that will continue before Bermudians are disappointed is really impossible to say.'' The 69 Bermudian students currently listed as studying law might be wise to specialise in undersubscribed areas like trust, intellectual property, insurance and reinsurance, and criminal law, he said.

The insurance industry offers some comfort to students who have not decided what to do when they leave secondary school. Graduates of the College of Insurance in NewYork have their pick of jobs when they return to the Island, but there are many other avenues to employment in Bermuda's bustling insurance and reinsurance field.

Rees Fletcher, chairman of the Bermuda Insurance Institute's education committee, points out that he comes from a liberal arts background and he has a friend in the industry with a music degree. "There's a place in insurance for many and varied backgrounds,'' he says.

Training in business, medicine, engineering, and many other fields can be useful for various types of insurance work, he adds. But accounting and insurance are intertwined, and local insurance companies are still forced to hire abroad, Fletcher notes. "I don't think there are enough qualified Bermuda applicants. We still need to hire people from outside of the Island, and not just for senior positions.'' The problem is not as serious as the numbers suggest, says Maxine Esdaille, an officer in the Education Ministry's special services. Students' post-secondary plans are "not written in stone,'' she says. "I don't think there's been any real problem.'' For instance, "a large number of people are in teaching, but we don't have that many who come back and teach. Often it's seen as a stepping stone to something else''.

The Ministry sends data on post-secondary studies to the Island's professional bodies so that "they can begin talking to the students before they get home,'' she says. The information is also sent to school guidance counsellors, but "kids are still very romantic at the high school level, says Esdaille.

"They do begin to face reality once they're in college.'' At the Bar Association, Cooper agrees that students have time to adjust, particularly after earning an arts degree while exploring their interests.

"Students are notorious for not necessarily studying what they think are going to earn them the best career opportunities or the best salaries,'' Cooper says. "They study what they want to study. They're really not thinking jobs.'' But Jack says that is changing.

"What we're seeing, particularly with the recession the last few years, is that the practical side is coming to the fore,'' he says. "People are saying: `I may enjoy physics, but what am I going to do with that? "I'm probably not going to have a career in Bermuda.'' Paul Egan is a senior reporter with The Royal Gazette. This is his first article for RG Magazine.

WHAT BERMUDIANS ARE STUDYING Bermudian students in post-secondary education 1992-93 (Source: Bermuda Government).

Accounting 164 Advertising 16 Architecture 27 Art 23 Auto Repair 9 Aviation 7 Banking & Finance 14 Business 169 Carpentry 4 Communications 11 Computer programming 16 Computer technicians 25 Dental hygenist 2 Dietary Science 7 Electrical work 5 Electronics 12 Engineering 54 Fashion 10 Graphics esign 17 Horticulture 8 Hotel Management & Other 28 Insurance 7 Interior Decorating 4 Jewellry 1 Journalism 4 Law 69 Librarian 3 Marine 3 Medical Technician 24 Medicine 44 Mortician 2 Music ance 8 Not known 1099 Nursing 21 Pharmacy 5 Photography 4 Physiotherapy 13 Planning 3 Police 9 Psychology 67 Recreation 2 Research 4 Religion 3 Secretarial 19 Social ealth Work 43 Surveyor 5 Teachers 188 Theatre Work 5 Travel & Tourism 17 Veterinarian 7 THE JOB MARKET Bermuda job vacancies (at August 1992, Bermuda Govt figures) Agriculture & Fishing Agriculture ivestock Prod. 8 Agricultural services 4 Manufacturing ervicing Beverage industries 1 Clothing 1 Wood products 3 Furniture 1 Printing & Publishing 1 Glass 7 Fabricated metal products 2 Electrical machinery 4 Other manufacturing industries 4 Construction 28 Utilities Electricity, Gas & Steam 10 Water Works & Supply 1 Wholesale etail and Restaurants otels Wholesale trade 1 Retail trade 31 Restaurants, cafes, bars 34 Hotels, guest houses, etc 44 Transport, storage and communications Land transport 14 Transport services 2 Financing, Insurance, Real Estate, Business Services Financial institutions 95 International companies 48 Real Estate 4 Engineering, Architectural, Technical Services 8 Accounting uditing ookkeeping 19 Advertising Services 2 Legal Services 16 Data Processing 4 Business Services 5 Community, Social and Personal Services Public Administration & Defence 72 Education Services 5 Research cientific Institutions 4 Medical ental et Services 34 Business rof. ab. Assocs. 2 Other Social ommty Services 4 Motion picture ntment Services 4 Libraries, Museums, etc 1 Amusement ec.Services 6 Repair services 7 Laundry leaning 2 Domestic Services 11 Misc Personal Services 9 SEPTEMBER 1993 RG MAGAZINE