Panama jobs boom creating supply problem

With major infrastructure projects under way, a mushrooming of new hotels, the canal expansion and the movement of major multinationals into the country, Panama is faced with a labor problem.

Some 25,000 jobs wll become available during the  expansion years, but there is a desperate shortage of workers able to speak English or with sufficient computer or equipment skills. The language problem, particularly acute in the service industries,  is not  a being addressed in the schools system, where  there are no immersion classes and many students have no access to computers.

The expanding hotel industry is facing major staff concerns, with new hotels cannibalizing others as they seek trained staff, and the movement of staff from one hotel or restaurant to another has become a musical chairs event, with managers and owners increasingly concerned.

The Metro construction project will need 4000 workers, before year’s end . The localTrump Hotel has 300 vacancies and customers of other recently opened hotels have seen the quality of service plummet as staff are enticed to greener fields.

Stores to be opened  in   the West Mall shopping center Arraiján need  about 3 000 workers and the Pacific,Howard, development   will provide 4,000 new jobs. by 2014
For businesses, says La Prensa the situation has worsened in the current environment. There is a shortage of   bricklayers, welders,heavy equipment drivers, bilingual administrators, masons, carpenters, civil engineers, salesmen, messengers, cashiers, dishwashers and restaurant managers, and current regulations restrict the importation of trained personnel from other countries.