Dominican Republic recovers all jobs lost during the pandemic

Employment figures in the Dominican Republic are already above the data prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and are expected to continue to improve until the end of the year, Labor Minister Luis Miguel De Camps announced on Monday.

The minister assured that, last September, the level of 1.5 million formal jobs was exceeded, which means having recovered the nearly half a million jobs destroyed in the country during the pandemic.

“The Dominican Republic has recovered all the jobs lost in the pandemic. In February 2020, the number of formal workers in the private sector was around 1,518,000″, And as of September 2021 they totaled more than 1,524,000, De Camps said in statements to journalists, on the sidelines of the XVII Ibero-American Social Security Congress.

The number of active workers in the country continued to rise in October and November, the minister said, predicting a further increase during December.

Gabriel del Río, president of the Autonomous Trade Union Confederation (CASC), also participated in the Social Security congress, who indicated that, despite this recovery of formal employment, There has also been an increase in informal work as a result of the pandemic.

According to data from the Central Bank, 58.9% of workers are in an informal condition, which represents an increase of 3.9 percentage points compared to the beginning of 2020, before the arrival of the pandemic in the country.

The recovery in employment is in line with the economic reactivation of the Dominican Republic, which has been one of the fastest in all of Latin America and the Caribbean.

The economic activity of the Dominican Republic increased by 12.4% between January and OctoberAccording to data from the Central Bank, which foresees that the gross domestic product (GDP) will end the year with an increase of around 11%. (I)