Unemployment on the Rise in Panama

According to statistics compiled by the Office of the Comptroller General labor contracts registered with Panama’s Ministry of Labor (Mitradel) fell 14% in January of 2017, compared to the same month last year.

January brought 20,236 employment contracts to Mitradel, a decrease of 3,239 contracts from January 2016.

If this trend continues, 2017 may become the fifth consecutive year in which the unemployment rate increases throughout Panama.

Young people between the ages of 20 and 24 are the group with the highest level of unemployment in the country. Estimations made by the International Labor Organization (ILO) show that globally, the unemployment rate will remain high in 2017.

The ILO expects the global unemployment rate to continue to increase, specifically in Latin America and the Caribbean. The ILO projects that the unemployment rate will increase in these regions to 8.4% in 2017, mainly due to the increase in unemployment in Brazil.

In contrast, the ILO expects unemployment in the developed countries to decline by 2017 and the rate to rise from 6.3 to 6.2 per cent, from 2016 to 2017.