Q COSTARICA — In light of the potential layoffs of Costa Rican workers at Amazon, the debate surrounding the sustainability of the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) attraction model has once again taken center stage.
In the last six months, companies such as Intel, Qorvo, Viant, and Amazon announced workforce adjustments, resulting in the departure of approximately 3,000 workers from the labor market.
According to experts from the Universidad Nacional (UNA), these layoffs cannot be viewed in isolation nor attributed solely to the situation in Costa Rica.
In many cases, corporate decisions are a response to global restructurings, financial losses, relocation of operations, and the advancement of technologies such as artificial intelligence.
This is according to an analysis by Rosemary Hernández, an academic at the School of International Relations at the UNA, who argues that the recent cuts are due to current factors stemming from international, national, and corporate-specific variables. From her perspective, the current context is the result of a combination of external pressures and internal challenges.
Internationally, Hernández highlights the growing competition from Asian markets, which offer aggressive incentives to attract foreign investment, based on lower wages and reduced social security contributions—conditions that Costa Rica can hardly compete with.
Added to this is the United States’ strategy of promoting the return of operations to its territory, as well as regional competition from countries like Mexico, whose geographic proximity reduces logistical costs for parent companies.
Local Conditions
Although she acknowledges that Costa Rican social security contributions are high, the specialist emphasizes that they reflect a development model that prioritizes quality of life and social protection.
However, she warns that, in a highly competitive global environment, these costs, along with expensive logistics, weigh heavily on business decisions.
To these elements is added a key internal factor: the exchange rate. The downward trend of the dollar means that companies’ revenues lose value when converted to colones to cover salaries and other local expenses, reducing the country’s competitiveness as an investment destination, according to academic analysis.
Amazon could lay off thousands
The case of Amazon Support Services Costa Rica illustrates this scenario. The Costa Rican government authorized a modification to the company’s free trade zone regime through Executive Agreement No. 5-2026, signed on January 5, 2026, by President Rodrigo Chaves and Minister of Foreign Trade Manuel Tovar. The reform substantially adjusted the minimum employment commitment assumed by the company.
With the new agreement, Amazon went from being obligated to maintain at least 16,450 workers to a threshold of 8,225 people, representing a 50% reduction.
Read more: Amazon lowers job target in Costa Rica from 16,000 to 8,000
The change responded to a request submitted by the company between August and November 2025, in which it cited transformations in its operating environment and its global employment strategy.
According to the company, between 2016 and 2021 its workforce in Costa Rica grew from 3,655 to 16,450 employees, an increase of nearly 350%, a goal it claimed to have reached in August 2022. However, the firm argued that the international business context has changed significantly.
Dollar exchange
The dollar exchange in Costa Rica has dipped below ¢500 for many weeks now. The official dollar exchange today as posted by the Banco Central de Costa Rica (Central Bank) is ¢448.90 for the buy and ¢496.44 for the sell.