Ha. I googled your question, and came up with this question. Why is Haiti so Poor but Jamaica is filthy rich? I guess you might have to define poor.
parts of Jamaica are poor, much like any country. and to answer the Haiti question - US foreign policy is why Haiti is so poor (Canada and France too, somewhat).
Jamaica might be considered poor (or so I learned in college geography) about something about their main source of export and something about their bauxite and yeah, that's all that I remember from that course. I thought that I had something important to say, I guess not.
If you have been to Jamaica, other than just on the grounds of an upscale tourist resort, then you have seen poverty like you will never find in the US. It is especially bad when you get away from the coast. Obviously there is some money in Jamaica. There are resort hotels that cost millions, but I suspect most of them are foreign-owned. Tourist money pays for some nice things like a modern airport, but little or none of that cash seems to reach the average resident of a small village. Besides cleaning rooms and waiting on tables, what is there to do for a living around there? Most of the land I saw was too steep for farming. I didn't see any factories. I didn't see any office parks. I didn't see anything away from the capital and the resorts that looked like anybody might be making any money, except for some local markets where people were buying and selling a few basic things like food and hats and baskets. I know they have to be growing some sugar cane somewhere on the island to make Jamaican rum, but there can't be a lot of money in that, for the workers. And they can't grow it on the side of a mountain.
There is alot of work, like you said besides cleaning/maid in hotel rooms, but their are also malls, restaurants, markets like you see everywhere. I even got my hair done at a regular hair salon down there, where there are a lot of employed people.
Jamaica has wealth the problem might be that the distribution of the wealth is very uneven. Jamaica has one of the worlds highest levels of inequality. Jamaica scores around 60 on the Gini coefficient (The Gini coefficient ranges from zero where all households have the same income to 100 where one household has all the income) The Jamaica Gleaner
Surprised no one here mentioned the documentary "Life and Debt." It will answer all your questions. You can watch it free online.
Poverty in Jamacia is relative. None of the Carribiean Islands has its own energy reserves, in this they are all in the same place as having to import energy. Talented Jamacians ( and Carribean peoples ) are drawn away from the Islands to earn. They go to Britian, Americia and other places. Most send back money, some return with pensions; but the loss of creative, intellegent people with drive is telling.
Jamaica is poor because of a series of events stemming from corrupt governments, coupled with leaders that negotiated with the IMF and World Bank that led to Structural Adjustment Agreements. Instead of using borrowed money to build hospitals, school, highways and other basic infrastructures or social services, the borrowed money had to be used for developping commercial land (international hotels, tourist restaurants, etc.) and to develop sweat shops or other foreign-owned entreprises. If you are interested, I'd recommend this documentary on the subject : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_and_Debt
This guy touched on what I was suspecting as being a part of Jamaica's problem. Jamaica has too many uneducated,untrained people combined with policies that aren't allowing people to create wealth and opportunities. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDPg7C-RDz8"]Why Jamaicans remain poor - YouTube
