Updated October 2026. October 2026: unemployment replaced with STATIN July 2026 LU1; overweight figures replaced with JHLS III; income group from the World Bank.
In August 2013 I had just read a LinkedIn post by Bill Gates, "We need our brightest people working on our biggest problems", about the foundation's work on polio and other diseases. The same idea applies at home. Jamaica's problems are also openings for someone who will work on them and get paid for doing the work properly.
The list below is the 2013 list. The sentences that are no longer true are rewritten. The invitation at the end is the same.
Unemployment and production
The 2013 post treated high unemployment, and a skilled labour force sitting idle, as the opening for investment in medical cannabis, health tourism, sports tourism, business-process outsourcing, music, and art and craft.
That labour picture is out of date. On the Statistical Institute of Jamaica key-indicator panel, the July 2026 unemployment rate (LU1) was 4.2%. Youth unemployment was 11.8%. The youth rate for those not in education, employment, or training was 27.5%. Low unemployment is not the same as a strong quarter for output. STATIN's same panel put the change in value added, at constant 2015 prices, at -2.9% for April to June 2026.
The 2013 list is still a set of industries a firm can work in. It assumed a large pool of unemployed skilled people, which the July 2026 labour figures do not show. Medical cannabis is no longer only a proposal. The Cannabis Licensing Authority was created under the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act 2015 to regulate a legal medicinal industry. This update does not add a jobs figure for outsourcing or tourism.
Education and health
Education that produces people who can make and sell things, handle cash flow, and look after their health is still a wide opening. The 2013 post did not put a number on it. None is added here.
The health paragraph did use numbers, and they were compressed badly. It said a World Bank study found that 60% of Jamaicans aged 35 to 54 were overweight or obese, that about 70% of Jamaican women were overweight, and that 80% of those women were aged 35 to 54. The "80% of whom" clause could not be traced to a source, so it is removed.
The later national survey is the Jamaica Health and Lifestyle Survey III (2016-17), published by the Ministry of Health and Wellness. Among people 15 and older, 67.6% of women were overweight or obese, against 38.8% of men. Obesity itself was 41.2% of women and 14.9% of men. Overweight was highest at ages 45 to 54 (69.7%). Obesity was highest at ages 35 to 44 (38.7%). The report is the JHLS III technical report. The business opening the post pointed to is prevention, not another prescription.
Energy, information, water, courts
The post urged a solar future and cited a Jamaica Observer report that panel prices had fallen 80%. That was a price change reported at the time. It is not a 2026 price index, and no new percentage is put in its place. The practical question is unchanged. Most households still cannot pay for a system up front, so the firm that makes a workable offer has a market.
Lack of data for people who have to decide is the work this firm does. The gap is smaller than it was in 2013 wherever STATIN and the Planning Institute publish, and it is still wide on questions those series do not ask.
Water harvesting and storage were tied to the island's droughts. The National Water Commission was, and remains, the public supplier the post was arguing with. The line that it "needs a competitor" was a view, not a finding.
The courts paragraph said "another US report" had just criticised the justice system, and asked what new law graduates and unhappy senior lawyers might do about delay. The "recently" was 2013. The report is not re-cited here because that timing no longer holds, and a newer report was not pulled into this update. The question for people in the profession stands on its own.
Which of these will you take on? Which one can you make a little better? Which one are you actually willing to stay with?
Luwayne Thomas wrote the original post as co-founder of Balcostics Ltd.
Updated October 2026
- Unemployment is no longer described as high. Figures are the STATIN key indicators read on 1 October 2026: LU1 4.2% and youth unemployment 11.8% (July 2026), youth NEET 27.5%, and value added -2.9% (April to June 2026). The cannabis line now cites the Jamaica Information Service (CLA created under the 2015 amendment).
- The overweight sentences are replaced with JHLS III (2016-17): 67.6% of women and 38.8% of men overweight or obese. The 2013 "80% of whom" line is dropped because it could not be traced to a source.
- The solar "80%" is left as a 2013 Observer report, not a current price. Jamaica's World Bank income group, upper-middle for July 2026, is used only as background and is documented on the classification page. No archive snapshot was retrieved for this post, so the image field is empty.