61,000 people over 40 years old and 142,000 people between 15 and 35 years old spent New Year’s Eve with a shoestring budget.
The tragedy of unemployment hit them during 2016 and now they are part of a statistic understood only by those with an empty cupboard, hungry children and a row of bills to pay.
According the continuous employment survey by INEC, the average unemployment remained between 9.4% and 9.6% and the government’s goal for 2017 is to lower that figure to 8.5% through the strengthening of two strategies: education and promotion of productive entrepreneurship.
We believe that both populations (from 15 to 34 and over 40) can be brought forward with tools that help them grow and generate their own income, one of which is basic and technical training. The Ministry of Education can give basic tools to those who do not know how to read or write, and those who did not complete sixth or ninth grade. And the INA can give them the techniques such as computing skills, so they can access a better quality job,”
said Carlos Alvarado, Minister of Labor.
According to INEC, 43 of every 100 unemployed people are in poverty or extreme poverty and 40% of them are women.
The second strategy of the Government is to finance small projects through seed funding programs from IMAS, Ministry of Economy and Development Bank, which lend money with better interests.
We believe the private sector has an important role, so we have generated some incentives to those who hire women or young people and train them in the program ‘my first job’,”
said Alvarado.
Betting on an unattractive population has been difficult for many employers, but it has become the main strength for the company Etiprés, located in Guararí de Heredia.
According to his own manager, they were not afraid of a marginal area, a population over 40 years old, or people without studies. That’s why they started hiring them and now they are their most faithful collaborators.
Its 130 employees are made up of 60% men and 40% women, mainly living in the communities of La Milpa, Los Lagos, Guararí and Granada, the poorest in Heredia.