Employment is still on the rise, Nonfarm payroll (SA) totaled 956,300 jobs in December. This marks a decrease of .07% when compared to November 2023 where the total jobs were 957,200. Although there was a slight decrease, jobs should continue to keep increasing in the coming months as it has been doing during 2023.
The biggest increases is seen in Construction when compared to December 2022, there was a 12.7% increase in this segment. Leisure and Hospitality is another segment with a significant increase of 8.3%. Most of the segments showed have had an increase or stayed relatively the same, which in effect shows how the labor force in Puerto Rico is effectively getting work post-pandemic and with the economy experiencing high interest rates.
Unemployment rate decreased to 5.7% in November 2023 and has remained the same for December 2023. When compared to 2022, there’s a .3% difference, this represents the lowest unemployment rate of the year. Participation rate was 44.6% for December 2023 as well, lower than December 2022 44.7%. The participation rate has remained somewhat the same throughout the year.
