Panama must bet on technology to employ young people

Undoubtedly one of the most affected sectors unemployment in Panama They are young people, who feel that they are not given the opportunity to enter the productive market and develop their potential.

Amidst the great uncertainty and expectations following the mining shutdown, there are those who believe that Panama must look to other sources of job creation.

In the case of young people, the Panamanian authorities must focus on the development of technological industries and thus include them in the labor market.

In that sense, economist, Olmedo Estrada notes that “Definitely, the employment opportunities of this sector must be based on technology and there should be, for example, investments in order to attract investments that truly promote technology.

The former president of the College of Economists admits that the investment areas in Panama have declined in recent years and believes that at the moment the ideal profile for meeting the needs of young people is investing in technology.

He suggests that multinational companies should be attracted to develop projects that can provide these opportunities to a sector that today requires employment opportunities.

Estrada admits that the creation of new jobs is one of the biggest challenges that the state, and therefore the Government, is facing, “although at the moment those who pay the price are young people who do not find these opportunities to generate income for their family “. related to public policies, because when you design public policies you have to consider what are the areas of greatest growth in terms of development to include the sectors that you know have the greatest difficulty to insert, and that’s where the youth issue comes in.”

30%

In the population, these are young people aged 15 to 29, that is, of productive age.

23%

which numerically amounts to 238,851 young people who do not study or work, i.e. NEET.

Eye employment expert, René Quevedo, Remember that according to statistics from National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC) Young people aged 15 to 29 make up 30% of the population of productive age, 24% of workers and 54% of the unemployed. 54% of young people are interested in work (PEA) and there are 238,851 NEETs (23% of the total) in the country.

Out of every 100 young people, 45 of them are working, 31 are studying, and 23 are NEETs (16 women, 7 men). 7 out of 10 NEETs are urban.

Between 2022 and 2023, an average of 5,766 new jobs were created per month, of which 21% were for young people under 30. The average age of new employees (2022-2023) is 44 years (3 years less than in 2013), with an average level of education of 14 years (almost two and a half years more than 10 years ago). The percentage of new jobs that require 12 or fewer years of formal education is now 78% (11 points less than ten years ago).

In contrast to the high concentration 10 years ago, when 9 out of every 10 new jobs were created by 4 sectors: construction, industry, logistics and hotels/restaurants, today the activities that generate employment are more diverse.

80% of labor force expansion today comes from 8 sectors, agriculture (13%, 7.1 years of education), education (12%, 15.3 years), hotels/restaurants (11%, 10.7 years). Government (11%, 13.5 years), health (11%, 14.3 years), household chores (7%, 10 years) and industry (5%, 9.7 years).

91% of young people who are employed today are office workers (24%), farmers (19%), craftsmen (19%), unskilled labor (18%) and trade workers (11%), jobs with relatively low wage levels.

It is still difficult for young people to find well-paid jobs. For example, professionals ($2023 average salary; $1,465.80 per month, 16.5 years of education) and mid-level technicians ($929.80, 14.5 years of formal education).

Today, 16% of these positions are held by young people, 5 points less than in 2013 (21%).

89% of new professional and technical jobs created in the last decade were created in the education sector (32%), health (26%), professional, scientific and intellectual activities (20%) and state payroll (eleven%).