Jamaica Country Commercial Guide
Learn about the market conditions, opportunities, regulations, and business conditions in jamaica, prepared by at U.S. Embassies worldwide by Commerce Department, State Department and other U.S. agencies’ professionals
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Market Challenges
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Overview

Jamaica faces multiple interlinked challenges across social, economic, and environmental domains, including persistent economic inequality, elevated crime rates, educational and workforce skills mismatches, health system constraints, extreme weather vulnerability, high energy costs, and regulatory complexity.

Economic Inequality

Despite macroeconomic progress, such as reducing public debt to nearly 60 percent of GDP at the end of 2024, the lowest in over three decades, income and opportunity gaps remain wide, limiting access for many Jamaicans to quality services and economic participation.

Crime and Public Safety

Violent crime remains a critical issue in Jamaica. In 2024, Jamaica recorded 1,141 murders, or approximately 40 per 100,000 inhabitants, still among the highest per capita homicide rates in the world despite a decrease of nearly 19 percent from 2023. Although other serious crimes also declined by 14 percent overall, public safety continues to influence business costs and national perception.

Corruption and Governance

Jamaica’s score of 44/100 on Transparency International’s 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index places it 73rd out of 180 countries. 

Judicial and Administrative Delays

Jamaica’s judicial system is regarded as fair, but legal proceedings often face significant delays. Recent leadership initiatives have reduced case backlogs, although systemic inefficiencies persist, and resolution for some cases remains protracted.

Education and Labor Skills

While school enrollment is high, quality gaps and misalignment between educational curricula and labor market needs remain. The island has experienced brain drain in recent decades as highly skilled workers, including nurses and teachers, emigrate to the United States, Canada, and Great Britain. 

Employers attempting to recruit foreign talent face burdensome work‑permit procedures without comprehensive national skills‑gap data, further hampering workforce planning.

Healthcare System

The health sector has suffered from decades of underinvestment, leading to periodic medical supply shortages and inadequate staffing, particularly in nursing. The COVID‑19 pandemic exposed critical vulnerabilities in emergency preparedness and infrastructure resilience.

Energy Dependency and Costs

As of December 2024, over 90 percent of Jamaica’s energy was generated from imported fossil fuels. Electricity rates remain high at between US$ 0.298 and US $0.396/kWh for residential and US $0.349/kWh for commercial, impairing business competitiveness.

Weather and Natural Disaster Vulnerability

Frequent hurricanes, flooding, earthquakes, and rising sea levels pose enduring threats to infrastructure, agriculture, tourism, and coastal communities.

Trade and Regulatory Barriers

Goods entering Jamaica are subject to customs duty, consumption taxes and other fees and levies. This includes a Common External Tariff (CET) ranging from five to forty percent for goods that do not meet Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Rules of Origin. Sanitary and phytosanitary standards, regulatory bureaucracy and inadequate digital and transport infrastructure present additional hurdles, especially for SMEs lacking logistical expertise. 

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