Panama leads in employment

Panama has the lowest unemployment rate in Latin America, at 3.7 %, according to the Preliminary Overview of the Economies of Latin America and the Caribbean 2013 (Spanish only), published last month by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Annual growth averaging close to 8% during the past five years has been a key factor in maintaining demand for labor.

Colombian meanwhile will have had a reasonable level of growth in the past year, about 4%, but unemployment lags at nearly 11%.

Unemployment in Costa Rica is 8.3 %, an improvement over the 10.4% figure of 10.4%.

Average unemployment in Latin America is 6.3%.

Data from El Salvador and Nicaragua are not available (figures in parentheses represent the percentage of unemployment in the rest of Central America, as well as Colombia and Mexico).

1. Colombia (10.6)
2. Costa Rica (8.3)
3. Honduras (6.0)
4. Mexico (5.8)
5. Guatemala (3.9)
6. Panama (3.7)