The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC, also known by its Spanish acronym CEPAL), predicts that Dominican unemployment numbers will continue to drop during 1999. ECLAC is the UN regional body based in Santiago, Chile that, among other things, produces economic forecasts for the region and gathers statistics of past economic performance. ECLAC says that the DR’s unemployment rate was 14.3% in 1998, down from 16% in 1997 and the 20% rate that dominated the 1994-96 period.
