QCOSTARICA – The recent announcements of massive layoffs worldwide at Amazon and Microsoft put the future of nearly 18,500 Costa Rican workers who work for both companies in suspense.
Amazon with some 17,000 employees in Costa Rica and Microsoft with about 1,500, the impact that these massive layoffs will have on national employment is still unknown.
As reported by the AFP news agency, last Wednesday, Microsoft announced the layoff of about 5% of its staff, in real numbers equalling some 10,000 employees, by the end of March, saying that this decision is “in response to macroeconomic conditions and changes in customer priorities.”
Although the firm has not yet confirmed any layoffs in Costa Rican, hundreds of employees fear for their job stability, especially in a context of economic crisis and a high level of national unemployment.
On the other hand, US e-commerce giant Amazon announced last week that it will eliminate more than 18,000 jobs, including in the United States, Canada, and Costa Rica. The company has not yet detailed the number of jobs that will be affected in Costa Rica.
An Amazon company worker in Costa Rica, whose identity is withheld, told SemanarioUniversidad.com that both he and his office colleagues are in “panic” about being laid off because the employment situation in the country is very bad and they fear that it will be difficult to find another job.
This university weekly says it tried to obtain a reaction from the Coalición Costarricense de Iniciativas de Desarrollo (CINDE) – Costa Rican Coalition of Development Initiatives, the Costa Rican Union of Chambers and Associations of the Private Business Sector (UCCAEP), the Association of Free Zone Companies of Costa Rica (AZOFRAS) and the Ministry of Labor on the matter.
The weekly reported that while CINDE replied with a refusal to comment, none of the other entities replied to their queries.
