Study debunks Medina’s claim on jobs growth

Santo Domingo.- The Juan Bosch Foundation on Thursday presented the study on employment “Radiography of work: Dignified work or junk jobs?,” which found that the country doesn’t create  jobs, nearly half are informal, and that workers produce more but earn less than in the 1990s.

The research analyzed the GDP’s latest data on the labor market and the cost of household staples, to conclude on the country’s reality on employment.

“This serves to explain why the unemployment rate isn’t significantly reduced, there are currently over 600,000 Dominicans looking for a job or can work, and can’t get one,” said social scientist Matías Bosch, together with lead investigator, economist Airon Fernández.

He debunked the figures on employment growth announced by president Danilo Medina. “The growth of the economically active population “PEA” has been lower than the amount of jobs which the Government says were created.

He added that compared with 2016, only 58,000 net jobs were created in 2017, on the growth of the PEA, contrary to the hundreds of thousands that the government says were created.

“With this picture of precariousness and shortage of work, it is very difficult to talk about becoming a middle class country,” the authors said in a statement.