Government ensures jobs lost due to pandemic are almost fully recovered

To reach the total number of formal and informal jobs that existed before the pandemic, only 10,000 would be missing, according to data presented by the Minister of Economy, Planning, and Development (Mepyd), Miguel Ceara Hatton.

In the first quarter of 2020, formally and informally employed persons stood at 4,605.9 million, and in the third quarter of 2021, employed persons reached 4,595,000, for -0.24%.

The most drastic fall in employed persons was registered in the second quarter of 2020, when it stood at 4,246,700 unemployed persons, for -7.79 less than the beginning of 2020. From that figure, jobs were headed towards recovery.

Through a document issued, the Mepyd explains that the number of employed workers has increased. As of October 2021, formal contract workers exceed the employment level of February 2020. As a result, workers employed in the private sector recovered what was lost in 2020 and compensated for the reduction in formal public employment.

In addition, as of September 2021, according to the Central Bank’s Continuous National Survey of the Workforce (ENCFT), only 10,000 formal and informal jobs were missing to recover the total employment lost in 2020.

“The recovery of employment is marching, but not that it has recovered in its entirety because if you analyze the tourism sector as such, the occupancy that we have is around 70%, it is not that of all the hotels in the country. If we analyze the small and medium-sized companies, they have not returned to the situation they experienced before the pandemic, “said Rafael Pepe Abreu, president of the National Council of Trade Union Unity (CNUS).

According to the Labor Outlook of the Dominican Social Security System (SDSS) and statistics of the collection of the Social Security Treasury (TSS), as of September 2021 a total of 2,096,105 workers were registered in the SDSS, with a wage bill of RD $ 58,866,796,671.3 and an average salary of RD $ 27,528.2.

The TSS explains that, compared to September 2020, there is a growth of 12.58% in the jobs registered in the Single Information, Collection and Payment System (SUIR) and 24.70% in the wage bill.

The document also indicates that men have a greater participation in the labor market. As of September 2021, they have 53.94% of the working population, while women make up 45.06%. On average, women have a salary of RD $ 27,941.3, slightly higher than men at RD $ 27,676.3.

As for public sector workers as an economic sector, as of September of this year, the largest number of employees are concentrated in the service sector, representing 99.64% of the total distribution of jobs. Within this sector, the four subsectors with the highest participation are public administration with 90.81%, other services with 2.24%, and financial intermediation, insurance, and others, with 2.18%.