Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Unemployment in Puerto Rico Falls 0.3% to 40.4%

04/23/2014

SAN JUAN – Unemployment in Puerto Rico fell 0.3 percent last month to 14.7 percent, the Department of Labor and Human Resources said Tuesday.

In comparative quantities, the 172,000 jobless in March signified 6,000 fewer out of work than the month before, the department said in its monthly bulletin.

The figure for last month was higher than the 14.2-percent jobless rate registered in March 2013.

Puerto Rico’s workforce participation rate, traditionally one of the lowest in the world, stood last March at 40.4 percent, down 0.3 percent from February.

The rate continued the decline it has maintained since the Puerto Rican economy entered a recession eight years ago.

The workforce in March numbered 1.18 million people, or 8,000 fewer than last February and a reduction of 20,000 from what it was exactly one year before.

Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla’s administration counts among its priorities raising the workforce participation rate, with is dragged down by the soaring numbers of Puerto Ricans between 16-34 who neither work nor attend school.

Since 1990, Puerto Rico has lost close to 70,000 jobs in the manufacturing sector.

The island has also experienced a population exodus, with college-educated Puerto Ricans leaving for the mainland United States. 


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