Costa Rica News – Costa Rica has claimed a great award for having the highest unemployment in the region. It would be nice if the current administration had actually addressed this but I guess shark fins and riding on drug dealers jets came first.
The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, ECLAC, released a report saying that Costa Rica had the second highest rate of unemployment in the region.
Colombia was the worst, with a rate of 10.6 percent, while Costa Rica’s unemployment was at 8.3 percent, according to a report published in December 2013. Some hope that the tourist season will help, but 70 percent of touristic business owners told the National Tourism Chamber that they won’t be hiring any new workers this season.
Costa Rica’s unemployment rate peaked in 2011, at 10.9 percent. In the third quarter of 2013, it was at 8.9, still way above its neighbors. The report pointed to a “cooling economy” in the fields of manufacturing and construction.
Ticos between ages 17 and 21 who have not graduated high school are prevented from getting high paying jobs in technology and the service industry, the fields that have been growing in recent years, according to the State of Education report from September 2013.
ECLAC estimates that Costa Rica’s GDP will grow 4 percent in 2014. Panama’s is predicted to grow by 7 percent and Nicaragua’s by 5 percent. The economies in both Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic should grow 4.5 percent in 2014.
