Get ready, 64% of jobs will disappear in Panama

The the reality of employment in Panama is not very encouraging, considering not only the jobs that have been lost and the large number of people who are in the informal sector, but also that this Central American nation must prepare to face a challenge involving technology, which in the next 20 years would lead to the disappearance of 64% of currently existing jobs.

He unemployment in Panama by August 2023 it is 7.4%, three tenths more than the level from August 2019 (7.1%).

However, today there are about 20,000 fewer private (formal) employees than before the pandemic, but 36,000 new civil servants and 49,000 new informal workers have been added to the economy.

He former president of the College of Economists, Olmedo Estrada explains that it is unemployment It is a reality that he not only faces Panamabut many jobs are being lost in the world due to technology.

Given this reality, he recommends implementing an industrial transformation to look at where we need to prepare our future professionals to have access to jobs.

“Panama is on the list of countries that will lose 64% of jobs or trades in the next 20 years, so we have to start looking at what will be the occupations or trades that we have to develop in the next 20 years in such a way that we can generate proposals, projects, attracting investments that are aimed precisely at solving the problem of unemployment among young people who are the most affected today unemployment“, says Estrada.

He emphasizes that in practice “we are already observing some trades and professions being replaced by robotics, for example bank counters, highway counters and receptionists”.

Don’t forget that the functions performed by ATMs today were previously performed by bank employees; in the corridors there is no more collection, but payment is made through a technological system.

“Even if you go to an establishment such as a supermarket, a store, at least one of the cashiers is a robot that invoices the product with a scanner and at the end tells you how much you have to pay, and you take out your credit card and salary, there are no cashiers in that sector, that is, the function of the cashier will disappear little by little,” he explains.

Already inside There are hotels in Europe and in some countries where there is no receptionist, “you simply come and use the tablet at the entrance to the hotel and check-in is done, because the payment and reservation have already been made and therefore the receptionist is not needed.”

Waiters in restaurants will also disappear because they will be ordering numberl.

Estrada insists that there are already professions that are disappearing because technologyrobotics is replacing them.

IN Panama There are companies that don’t need staff to manage warehouses because with world-first technology the shelf space is established, there are already many functions performed by robotics.

Drivers of transportation services around the world will also disappear, since there are vehicles that are driven by remote control.

The world is inside the fourth industrial revolutionl, many still do not think about the fact that in the coming years professions will disappear, among others, journalists, lawyers and accountants.

For his part, the employment specialist, René Quevedo indicates that Panama is at a critical crossroads, marked by the beginning of the transformation of its economic matrix with a high face-to-face component to one based on knowledge, for which it must prepare its workforce.

The specialist points out a number of weaknesses that the Panamanian economy faces based on the challenges technology. He states that quality jobs are not created in Panama, they are created by the government, with borrowed money. A difficult process of precariousness and nationalization of employment is underway.

In the last decade (2013-2023), 266,264 jobs were created, but today we have 25,705 fewer private workers, and 77,234 more civil servants, while 235,480 new informal workers have been added to the workforce. economy.

That pattern continued with the pandemic. From August 2019 to August 2023, 17,974 jobs were created, a balance resulting from the loss of 19,812 wage jobs in the private sector, the inclusion of 36,482 civil servants on the government payroll, and 49,039 new informal jobs in the economy.

This phenomenon is a product of the loss of confidence in the climate for private investment in the country.

70% of jobs in Panama are face-to-face, and the creation of new jobs in better-paying jobs will depend on private investment being attracted.

The education system has historically been disconnected from the working reality in the country and does not create the skills that the manufacturing sector requires. For reference, in 2018, our universities graduated 32,709 professionals (source: INEC), of which only 1,957 (6%) found employment in 2019 (BEFORE the pandemic)

“In this context, the creation of new jobs is encouraged technology will depend on improving the climate for private investment in the country,” Quevedo points out.

Study of International Labor Organization (ILO)published in August 2023, concluded that Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) is more likely to complement jobs than destroy them, automating some tasks rather than replacing roles entirely.

He administrative jobs It is the category with the highest technology exposure, with nearly a quarter of tasks considered high exposure and more than half of tasks having a medium level of exposure.

According to the study, the potential effects of Generative AI are likely to differ significantly between men and women, as automation could affect more than double the employment of women, a potential challenge for Panama, where according to figures from National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC)As of August 2023, office workers contributed 8% of new jobs created in the last decade (2013-2023), and 70% of the country’s more than 128,000 office workers are women.

But ILO report It also raises other considerations for Panama, especially for young people.

The average age of the newly employed is 44 years, with an average education of 12 years, compared to 47 or 9.6 years 10 years ago. This indicates a growing relationship between education and employmentin the process of transition from an economy based mainly on the direct economy to a knowledge-based economy.

Only 1 out of every 100 young Panamanians can distinguish opinion from fact.

There is a lot of talk about a divorce in between The Panamanian education system and our working realityincreasingly demanding in terms of knowledge, skills and competences.