Q COSTARICA — In recent years, Costa Rica has been a magnet for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), generating wealth and thousands of quality jobs; in fact, a record US$5.008 billion was reached in 2024.
However, the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI), global market uncertainty, and competition to reduce costs with other destinations have led the free trade zone (zona francas) model and FDI to face a new paradigm that could mean more investment, but fewer jobs and even layoffs.
Between July of last year and February of this year, five large multinational corporations with a presence in Costa Rica announced staff reductions. Although they haven’t disclosed the exact number of people affected, it’s safe to say the impact will be significant.
For example, Amazon received government authorization to reduce its hiring commitment from 16,450 workers to 8,225, representing a 50% reduction.
For its part, Viant Medical announced on January 21 the layoff of 900 employees, while Qorvo, which had been operating in the country for almost 30 years, decided to relocate its operations to Asia to save resources.
Immediately upon completing the purchase of FIFCO, which owns Costa Rica’s brewery and other products—Heineken announced it would cut around 6,000 jobs
On July 24, 2025, Intel announced the closure of its Assembly and Testing plant in the country, relocating those operations to Vietnam and Malaysia. The company did not specify the impact of this decision on the country in terms of job losses.
“Costa Rica is in an uncomfortable transition. We are moving away from being an ‘attractive destination for multiple reasons’ and trying to become a ‘high-tech’ destination, but the exchange rate, adverse geopolitics, and the speed of AI are accelerating that transition faster than our workforce and political and economic pace can adapt. The question is: will there be more layoffs? To be realistic and direct: it’s likely,” said Alexander Mora, former Minister of Foreign Trade.
On this topic, Laura López, general manager of Procomer, noted that the good news is that, despite the aforementioned reductions, the country continues to attract foreign companies at a good pace.
Despite this, she explained that challenges remain, while also noting that companies are undergoing normal adjustment processes due to changes in demand, technology, and their business models.
“The international environment has become more challenging; the geopolitical situation, trade fragmentation, and technological acceleration have raised the bar for countries competing for foreign direct investment. The adjustments some companies are making are primarily due to global decisions related to these technological transformations and operational reorganizations, and not to a structural deterioration of the country’s conditions,” López added.
Amazon, Viant Medical, Qorvo, and Heineken announced layoffs that would affect thousands of Costa Ricans, but investment is reporting record figures. Geopolitical factors, trade fragmentation, costs, and AI have raised the bar for countries competing to attract companies.
What to do?
Faced with this situation, the response begins with accelerating the adaptation of human talent to the new productive and technological needs that are redefining employment worldwide, but also with strengthening the conditions that allow this talent to enter and remain in high-value-added sectors.
“Effective mitigation requires an accelerated transition to a ‘second-generation knowledge economy,’ focused on the massive retraining (upskilling and reskilling) of talent in areas where technology is still irreplaceable, such as strategic thinking, AI architecture, and semiconductor management. At the same time, the government must reduce the distortions that increase the cost of local operations, such as electricity costs, taxes, and social security contributions,” said Daniel Suchar, an economic analyst.