Dominican workers earn less than US$333 as informal jobs beckon

Santo Domingo.- As highas 85% of Dominican Republic´s formal sector workers earn less than RD$15,000 (US$333)monthly, economist Franklin Vasquez affirmed Wednesday.

He revealed the figure inhis research "Employment, youth development and salary," whose conclusionsare slated for release in March.

The economist said he founda lack of correlation between economic growth and employment in the country."In other words the Dominican economy grows and generates jobs. Thefigures are there, as we have growth rates in the last 10 years and annualaverage of 6%, however, the average unemployment rate is still 14.3%. This showsthat the labor market is rigid and Dominican Republic produces neither sufficientnor decent jobs."

The researcher alsofound that most of the unemployed workers are women ages 20 to 29, while theaverage income of men is RD$15,000 compared with women, of RD$12,000.

"These data showthat there are still inequalities that are important in the market," theresearcher said.

"The fact is thatwe have not implemented employment policies ever. Here we do things, as anexample, we give money and develop business projects, but those are not activeemployment policies and what is done is never permanent," Vazquez said, quotedby elcaribe.com.do.

Speaking in the SantoDomingo Technological Institute´s (Intec) 2nd annual Business andEconomics Congress -CANE-, Vasquez questioned whether the study analyzes thepolitical job, what said,

Faced with all this,the economist notes, Dominicans have found that entering the informal market asa response, which is around 55% and is “totally vulnerable.”

The Congress part of his research during theinwhich they were announced yesterday 33 research conducted by universityacademics, on international trade, mining policy, employment and stock market.