QCOSTARICA – The Continuous Employment Survey (ECE) of the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INEC) for the three months of September-October-November 2020 shows that the country has recovered 183,274 jobs from the most critical moment of the pandemic at the labor level between May and July.
In addition, it shows the second-highest number of people employed since the start of the pandemic.
For this quarter, a total of 1,906,286 people were employed, 28,458 more than in the previous quarter.
The unemployment rate was set at 21.3% for this quarter.
The Minister of Labor, Silvia Lara Povedano, pointed out the importance of seeing “a trend of recovery in the labor market from the gradual opening of the economy in August.”
“This, although positive, poses a very important challenge for the country in this recovery process and it is to move towards a transformation of the labor market that allows us to meet the human capital needs that are occurring in the country. so that the jobs that are created can be filled immediately by those who are still unemployed,” she added.
The downward trend of this rate continues for the fourth consecutive time since the highest impact data was presented in May-June-July quarter, in which the unemployment rate rose to 24.4%. The percentage growth of the unemployment rate was 8.8% compared to the same three months in 2019.
The unemployment rate is higher in women than men; 28.1% and 16.8% respectively.
As for the unemployed, the number rose to 516,542 people. The underemployment rate (people who work less than 40 hours per week and want to work more) is 22.7%.
With respect to the impact of the pandemic, the survey shows that for the three months of September-October-November 2020, the workforce with a labor incidence due to the effect of COVID-19 was 940,242 people (38.81%), about 40,000 people less than the previous three months (4.32% less).
Similarly, the administrative records of the CCSS show recovery and strength of the formal sector of the national economy. In November 2020, the number of insured persons totaled 1,747,675.
