Report Concludes Panama Requires More Skilled Labour

12 Jul 2017 Catherine Perea 03.38pm

A progress report on the 'Evolution, Situation and Prospects of Employment in Panama' concluded that the Panamanian economy generated 104,156 jobs between August 2014 and March 2017 and will continue to generate jobs, requiring more trained Panamanian human resource personnel.

The Ministry of Labor and Social Development, MITRADEL, said that 39,230 people entered the labor market between March 2016 and March 2017, of which 38,269 (98%) found stable employment.

This figure is 40% higher than the 27,397 jobs created between March 2015 and March 2016, which in turn has had an important impact on the decline in unemployed, 18,392 between 2014 to 2015 and 10,226 between 2015 to 2016, down to only 961 between 2016 to 2017.

With regard to the evolution of employment by educational level, two out of every three jobs require 12 years of schooling and the trend over the past 10 years is that 81% of new jobs are demanding 12 or more years of schooling, 47% of them university degrees.

The average age in the new formal jobs 2016-2017 is 53 years, 8 above the average in 2009-2014, as referred to in the report of the United Nations High Commission for Employment (2014), which reiterates the importance of maturity and the "soft skills" as fundamental requirements for the sustainability of youth into the labour market.

The report was presented on Wednesday at a press conference of the Ministry of Labor and Social Development, in which the holder of that portfolio, Luis Ernesto Carles, in addition to representatives of chambers of commerce as APEDE, CONEP, CAPAC, and international bodies such as the International Labor Organization (ILO).

At the same it was recommended to strengthen programs of the National Institute of Vocational Training for Human Development (INADEH), strengthen and promote entrepreneurship, and productive inclusion through the authority of the Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (AMPYME), and, on the other hand, in the initiatives that the Ministry can develop in partnership with the employer sector unions.

source: Telemetro