According to economist and professor Miguel Collado Di Franco, the Dominican Republic’s labor market saw a modest increase of only 2.5% (or 4,355 jobs) in the 12 months between the first quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025.
Analyzing recent data from the Central Bank, Collado Di Franco, Vice President of the Regional Center for Sustainable Economic Strategies (CREES), noted that 27% of the 176,581 new jobs cited by the institution were in the public sector. This means that 47,049 individuals were hired by the government. “In other words,” he explained, “without the use of public funds for these hirings, the growth would have been limited to 129,533 new jobs, and the occupation levels between 2023 and 2024 would not have been reached.”
Collado Di Franco contrasted these figures with those from the first quarter of 2023 to the first quarter of 2024, highlighting an unexpected decline of 1,233 jobs in the public sector during that period. Additionally, he pointed out that while 113,702 private-sector jobs were created between 2023 and 2024, the growth in the latest twelve months was significantly slower, with only 1,759 new jobs—a mere 1.5% increase—bringing the total to 115,462 new private-sector jobs.
The economist emphasized that the lack of pending structural reforms aimed at improving the business climate and boosting economic productivity is not yielding cause for celebration, as evidenced by the official survey. “The dependence on public-sector jobs in the employment figures suggests that without these positions, the growth rate over the past 12 months would have been lower than what was presented in the first quarter of 2024,” he concluded.
The continued increase in government jobs comes at a time when government current spending is on the rise. This is happening at a time when the pace of capital investments by the government is on a decline with the government borrowing to carry out major projects.
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Listin Diario
DR1 News
22 May 2025