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.
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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.
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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.