The current employment situation worries thousands of Panamanians, more so at this time when several have lost their jobs due to the health crisis or the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Minister of Labor and Workforce Development, Doris Zapata, offered this Tuesday, on Radio Panama, a balance on this issue, revealing that there is currently 11.3% unemployment, according to figures from the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC) of the Comptroller General of the Republic, and the 18.5% that the pandemic showed last year has been exceeded.
He indicated that the highest percentage we had had in terms of unemployment was due to the invasion, but quickly “we recovered because the circumstances and conditions were different. When facing a pandemic, what came to light is that without health we have nothing.
Zapata also highlighted that in the Ministry of Labor and Labor Development (Mitradel) some 20 to 22 thousand monthly contracts have been registered, and to date some 69 thousand new contracts have been reported.
“Around 40% of these contract records are defined, which tells us that there is a movement in the labor market, but that companies are still not sure that the conditions will allow them to have an indefinite contract. This has been improving due to the opening of economic activities and for us it is important. We are talking about different categories of companies, micro and small, of those that are within that social security environment”, remarked the head of the entity.
The official mentioned the program called “Solidarity Employment”, which is part of the Panama Solidarity Plan, created in the midst of the state of emergency announced by the National Government due to the Covid-19 pandemic, anticipating that on May 11 The registration platform for companies that are going to apply to this program will be formally launched and they are going to look for vacancies to be able to be within it.
It is expected that some 1,500 people will be part of said program, who will have an incentive of $900 with the condition that the companies hire the person for a period of one year; this prioritizes for small and medium businesses.
He clarified that the database that is being taken into account is the one made up of those people who in the midst of the pandemic were vulnerable to job loss and who received the training required by the new Panama Solidarity Plan law.
As part of the implementation of the Solidarity Employment Program, the Government will allocate some $27 million to support micro, small and medium-sized companies in hiring people impacted by the lack of employment in the midst of the pandemic.
