DRSol :: News Archive :: Informal sector strong

DRSol :: News Archive :: Informal sector strong

DR1 - Of the 608,000 jobs created over the last 8 years, close to 80% have been generated by the country`s informal business sector. These figures from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) reveal a worrisome trend for the Dominican economy. While the nation`s GDP was multiplied by 2.55 in this period, the number of jobs only multiplied by 1.58. Business sector representative Marisol Vicens has repeatedly expressed concern that the high cost of benefits attached to formal sector jobs is a deterrent to job creation. She estimates that for every RD$1 in wages, formal sector employers need to come up with RD$0.65 in benefits. Vicens has argued that the high cost of benefits makes the DR lag in competitiveness compared to regional competitors in Central America. According to the UNDP statistics, at the end of 2007 the number of economically active Dominicans was 4.2 million, but by 2008 the total had gone up to 7.6 million. The number of women in the workforce increased 2.9% from 2000 to 2007, and there are more women bosses. This is attributed to a higher female-male ratio among university graduates. Unemployment has remained at the same level. It was recorded at 13.9% in 2000 and then still at 14% at the close of 2008. But the number of unemployed increased by an average of 23,000 per year, compared to the 72,000 who find employment each year. Unemployment in the DR tends to affect women more than men, with 64% of those unemployed being women. Education is also a factor in unemployment. 36% of the unemployed have a basic education and 38% of those unemployed have a grade school education. Workers with secondary education have an unemployment rate of 15% while only 24% of college graduates are unemployed. Geographically speaking, 77% of the unemployed live in urban areas, while 23% live in rural areas, as reported in Hoy. Read original at DR1.