Current and future issues in the Aruban labor market

The Aruban economy has seen tremendous growth since the mid 1980's. This growth has been fueled by importing labor: cumulative net migration between 1991 and 2000 has been 18215 people, which in fact exceeds net employment creation over that same period. Net migration has been positive since 1988, which has, among other things, resulted in a significant increase in the population of Aruba. Recently, the government has changed the rules to obtain working permits. Also, construction of new hotels is taking place on the island. In this paper we explore the consequences of these developments, and we give some options for preventing decreasing growth to a lack of labor supply.