Companies in Alajuela, Heredia best bets for employment in next quarter

Employers in Costa Rica were optimistic about hiring plans for the next quarter, according to the Employment Outlook Survey released Tuesday by consulting firm Manpower.

In the survey, 71 percent of employers said they plan on maintaing staff levels unchanged, while 23 percent expect to hire more workers. Only 6 percent anticipate layoffs.

The Net Employment Outlook – the difference between the percentage of employers who anticipate hiring and those expecting layoffs – is +14 percent.

However, hiring expectation is 2 percent lower than the past quarter, when Manpower reported that 25 percent of employers were planning to increase staff.

Companies with the best hiring expectations are in the transport and communications and services sectors.

ManpowerGroup Business Development Manager Jorge Tiburcio noted that positive expectations reported in the services sector likely “are influenced by a recent growth in companies in the health tourism sector as well as in the tourism industry in general.”

By region

The outlook by region looks positive mostly for job seekers in Alajuela and Heredia, as employers in these provinces showed the highest hiring expectation at 19 percent, followed by employers in the coastal provinces of Puntarenas and Limón, with 17 percent each.

“Confidence showed by employers in Puntarenas and Limón is encouraging, and hiring expectations also improved by a considerable margin in the annual comparison,” Tiburcio said.

Employers in the capital, San José, reported a positive hiring expectation of 15 percent, followed by those in Cartago with 12 percent. Guanacaste reported the lowest expectations at 7 percent.

A comparison by company size shows that large companies have stronger hiring plans, at 38 percent. Hiring expectation at small and medium-sized companies is 22 percent, and only 14 percent of micro-enterprises are planning to increase their staffs during the upcoming quarter.

Manpower’s survey was conducted among 622 companies across the country between January and February.