MITRADEL: “Once the canal expansion ends, those jobs will have to come from somewhere else.”

July 13, 2010

El Panamá América

Regardless of gender, both men and women can apply for the same job. In the past year in 2009, there was a reduction of 57,000,971 employment contracts. The breakdown of that includes 31,000,722 defined contracts, 59,110,000 permanent contracts and 15,000,658 fewer contracts than in 2008.

From January to June 2010, there have been 112,000,268 labor contracts in the MITRADEL, with a monthly average of 9,000,356.

Vargas explained that there is a higher demand now for jobs in the technology sector, as well as categories such as heavy equipment operators, project managers, construction supervisors, design, inspection, and surveying services, finance, accounting, purchasing, logistics, security, maintenance and design and computer science. However, he stressed that the occupations that are emerging in the coming years are in the construction, tourism and services sectors.

One issue that remains a concern for many is the country´s unemployment. Related to this topic, Vargas explained that the working population in Panama is 1,444,399, including an active workforce of 63.7%. The unemployment rate currently is 6.6%.

He added that both the Canal expansion and the redevelopment of Panama Pacifico have starting and ending dates for the build-outs. So, in these cases, there will be some labor needs creating temporary jobs during the construction of both.

“As we noted, approximately another 21,000 will employed between 2010 and 2014. However, after that time, a lot of the temporary positions will go away,” he said. Once the Canal expansion is completed, job growth could slow down.

The provinces with higher unemployment rates are Colon (10%), Panama (7%), Chiriqui (7.6%), Bocas del Toro (6.5%) and Cocle (6%).

Vargas specified that the job growth in Panama is projected to be in tourism, construction and services, based on current ongoing projects.

Henry Kardonski explained part of Panama Pacifico´s master plan is a training center and programs which will develop future workforce for onsite companies. This infrastructure will contribute to the country’s new permanent jobs.

Ferreira Manuel, director of Economic Affairs at the Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture of Panama explained that the competitiveness of Panama’s labor is low compared with other countries in the region, mainly because of lower education levels that exist in Panama. He added that the main obstacles when applying for labor is concentrated in a lack of bilingual staff, experienced technicians and staff lacking labor certification for legal employment in the country.