Abstract
The Samoan economy is largely agriculture based with a high
dependence on external personal remittances and external development
aid. In Samoa, as in many developing countries, the main employer of
labour in the formal sector of the economy is the government. However
Samoa’s private sector economy has continuing to diversify and grow
over time. This article explores the main characteristics of the nonagricultural private sector industry and its workforce in Samoa. It also
reviews the impact of the seasonal worker’s scheme on the nonagricultural private businesses and the associated responses to them. It
is based on detailed interviews with 31 private business operators in
Apia who have experienced losses of skilled and trained workers leaving
their employment to take up the opportunity to work under the seasonal
worker’s scheme currently running in New Zealand and Australia. The
focus of the article is the characteristics of the workforce, the labour
market losses, the various views on the loss of skilled critical workforce
to overseas competitors and the associated subsequent disruption these
have on the non-agricultural private businesses.
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