Panama is a developing country with a fast-growing economy located in Central America. It has one of the highest GDPs in Latin America but is not devoid of domestic economic problems, such as income inequality and poverty. This paper aims to review two current news articles about Panama, which reveal the issue of the high unemployment rate in this country, which continues to increase and has taken the form of a crisis.
The first article appeared in a Panama news outlet called Newsroom Panama . It reports that, in 2021, 108,975 people in Panama were searching for a job, and the unemployment rates among women were higher than among men (Newsroom Panama, 2022). Unemployment results from a lack of new jobs, and the government has to pay subsidies to its citizens to help them survive (Newsroom Panama, 2022). This article is consistent with my findings that, despite fast economic growth, Panama has been experiencing increasing unemployment rates in recent years.
The second article was published in Valley Post and is entitled “Job Creation is a Challenge for Panama.” It reports that COVID-19 has significantly affected employment in the tourism, retail, real estate, and construction sectors in Panama (Arzu, 2022). This source is consistent with my findings that the majority of the population in Panama is occupied in the service industry. When the main economic sectors cannot operate as usual, the country experiences a rise in unemployment.
In conclusion, Panama is an export-oriented country, and services constitute the basis of its economy. Although the country’s economy is growing, this growth is not noticeable to its citizens, many of whom cannot find a formal full-time job. In order to address this issue, the country needs to increase the qualification of its labor force and create new jobs, for example, by investing in infrastructure.