In the last two years, the number of jobs generated by Cost Rica’s commercial sector has fallen 7%, because of the slowdown in the country’s economic activity.
According to information from the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos (INEC) – National Institute of Statistics and Census, between the second quarter of 2017 and the same period of 2019, the number of jobs in the commercial sector was reduced from 386,597 to 357,976 (down 28,621).
This decreasing behavior in the number of jobs available in the commercial sector coincides with the falls in the economic activity, which in recent months has registered negative year-on-year variations, according to the last report of the Central Bank of Costa Rica (BCCR) dated September 11, 2019.
Alonso Elizondo, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce, told Nacion.com that “… in the face of declining consumption there is a blow to the income of businesses and has affected both investment and employment.”
Elizondo added that “… Companies do not reduce their human resources because they want to, it is reduced because, given a difficult economic reality, it is necessary to reduce operating costs to survive in the market.”
Overall unemployment in Costa Rica has also increased, the unemployment rate for April to June of this year was 11.9%, higher than the 11.3% reported in the first three months of the year.
