Study: foreigners account for 6.2% of Dominican workforce

Santo Domingo.- Around 6.2% of  Dominican Republic’s workforce are foreigners, according to the latest study by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

The report “Labor Outlook in Latin America and the Caribbean: Labor Immigration in Latin America” shows that the participation of foreigners in the Dominican labor market is the second highest in the region. Costa Rica leads with 12.3% of the labor market, followed b Venezuela’s 5.8%, and Argentina at 5.6%.

The ECLAC report says that in Dominican Republic’s case, the majority of foreigners work in agriculture, accounting for 20.1% of the workers in that sector, followed by construction (15.6%) and mining (6.1% ).

It said immigrants’ income in the Dominican Republic is lower than that of nationals, with two exceptions: women and foreign employers in the country earn better wages, compared to Dominicans. “But because less skilled workers account for the bulk of the country’s migration, this causes them to earn, on average, less or a similar amount than the natives.”