Last September, Hanes announced it would close nine plants in five countries and reduce its global workforce by 12 percent as part of a major restructuring effort. The company eliminated 8,100 jobs in the United States, El Salvador, Honduras and Costa Rica, and moved 2,000 jobs to Asia.
The halls were decked with lights and wreaths at the offices of the Union of Private-Sector Chambers and Associations but there was little holiday cheer in the group’s latest business survey. Over 60 percent of businesses surveyed in the report said that they did not plan to hire any new employees in 2015, according to results released Wednesday.
Casa Presidencial said that Accenture will be looking for technicians and professionals in finance, administration, systems engineering and people with experience in procurement and accounting among other fields. Interested parties can send a résumé to: accenture_av_cr_tsn@accenture.com.
The program will offer training and educational assistance to improve the competitiveness of small and medium-sized businesses, but the news came on the heels of a Hanes Brand Clothing subsidiary closing its operations in Cartago, and laying off 1,250 workers because of more favorable conditions in Vietnam.
The plan has a particular focus on working mothers and people with disabilities. The national unemployment rate is 8.5 percent, but the rate is higher among women, reaching 10.8 percent. Some 65 percent of 188,00 unemployed Ticos have a disability.
The Costa Rican Investment Promotion Agency and the Foreign Trade Ministry on Tuesday confirmed that rum manufacturer Bacardi will open a Latin American service center in Escazú on Sept. 1.
An upcoming hackathon for women in San Carlos, in north-central Costa Rica, is seeking bright minds to help develop new technology applications to address social problems, and at the same time foster better training and more tech jobs for women.
Costa Rica has failed to address the migration of its highly skilled workers and “lacks strategies to take advantage of Costa Rican talent outside the country,” a recent survey noted.
