Costa Rica will reach a population of 5 million by 2018, according to estimates from the National Statistics and Census Institute (INEC). INEC and Casa Presidencial warned that there are some growing pains ahead for the country as it approaches.
Unemployment in Costa Rica reached 10.1 percent in the first quarter of this year, a slight increase over the same period last year, the National Statistics and Census Institute (INEC) reported Tuesday.
Labor Minister Víctor Morales Mora took to social media after Monday's legislative motion, saying he was happy to testify about his administration's efforts to improve the country's employment panorama.
A recent wave of layoffs across several sectors of the economy — from Wendy’s to Avianca — has culminated in more than 228,000 unemployed Costa Ricans at the end of the third quarter of 2014, according to figures from the National Statistics and Census Institute.
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.
Nearly half of all HIV-positive people in Costa Rica are unemployed or not looking for work, according to a recent survey. The results were first published on Nov. 27 amid several events leading up to World AIDS Day on Monday.
Vice President Ana Helena Chacón hosted a breakfast Friday morning at Casa Presidencial recognizing Costa Rica’s Paralympic athletes and the country’s newly created Paralympic Federation at the end of a week observing the rights of people with disabilities.
Economic concerns were front and center in the annual report on the state of Costa Rica, which highlighted topics like unemployment, inequality, poverty and the deficit. After 20 years of economic growth, the report’s authors said that Costa Rica has yet to make significant gains in human development.
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.
Costa Rica could reduce its poverty rate by 8.5 percent if all employers paid the legal minimum wage and poor families could find work, according to a new report from the United Nations Development Program released Monday.
