Central Bank governor Hector Valdez Albizu told representatives of the business community during a meeting at the Central Bank on Monday that the government has eliminated 39,271 jobs (or 12.2% of occupied posts) from the public payroll in the past two months. As reported in the Listin Diario, Valdez Albizu said the dismissals represented savings of RD$258.2 million in September, compared to July, and annual savings of RD$3 billion. He said that 97.4% of the firings happened in September, when 38,378 employees were let go, most from the Presidency of the Republic.
He said that as of July, there were 322,763 employees, a number that was reduced to 283,492 in September. This is 29,293 permanent jobs (9.5%) of a total of 280,340 and 9,978 temporary positions (76%) of 13,130 contracted employees. He said that 5,274 employees were cancelled from the Presidency of the Republic, 4,426 from the Ministry of Education, 9,251 from the Ministry of Public Health, 5,851 from the Ministry of Agriculture and 5,459 from the Ministry of Public Works.