Pacific Magazine > Daily News

Study Says American Samoa Has Qualified Workforce For Knowledge Industry Ventures

By Fili Sagapolutele in Pago Pago
Tuesday: March 18, 2008

A University of Hawai’i (UH) study has concluded that a qualified workforce is available in American Samoa to fill jobs created by new ventures such as call centers. And the UH study says this workforce could be supplemented with workers from neighboring Samoa and the Samoan community in Hawai’i.

Gov. Togiola T.A. Tulafono hopes to have American Samoa link up to the undersea fiber optic cable in early 2009 and a U.S. company is looking to set up call centers in Pago Pago once that fiber cable is in place.

A study by UH’s Pacific Business Center Program (PBCP) found that the qualified available labor pool in American Samoa “demonstrated the necessary analytic and
verbal skills to satisfy the requirements of new ventures in the knowledge industry. This included knowledge of computer usage, elementary mathematics skills such as elementary trigonometry, and, importantly, adequate command of written and spoken English language.”

The team visited American Samoa and Samoa last summer and conducted paper and pencil surveys in randomly selected villages, focus group discussions and interviewed chiefs and opinion leaders. A random telephone survey in American Samoa and of Samoan households in Hawaii was also undertaken.

The PBCP team says a new venture in the knowledge industry, such as a call center,
could find, at prevailing wage rates, at least 1,500 to approximately 2,000 qualified available workers currently residing in the Territory.

In addition, approximately another 6,000 might be lured from Samoa and approximately 1,700 might be lured from Hawaii, “but this process will likely be replete with complications and costs associated with that relocation, born both by the venture and the
current residents of American Samoa.”

It also suggests that by offering wages higher than in the government sector, it could find even more workers, “but (that) this is likely to result in the serious depletion of the
government workforce, with the best and brightest being the first to leave.”

A third alternative, suggested a number of times by chiefs and opinion leaders in both American Samoa and Samoa, involves a dual organizational design with the central venture and management located in American Samoa.

“In addition, the organizational design will also embrace a sister entity in Samoa, with a middle level of management reporting to a central center in American Samoa,” the team noted. The UH study says a Samoa based center could find about 6,000 people willing to work at “very favorable wages.”