Government stats contradict full employment claims

Assertions by President Ricardo Martinelli that Panama is a country with no unemployment are contradicted by statistics from the country’s comptroller and the Workers Confederation

Martinelli’s statements, which included "there is no financial crisis" came in an in interview in Spanish with CNN, but La Prensa reports that in August 2010 the unemployment in the country was 6.5%, only 0.1 percentage points below that recorded  for the same period in 2009, when the rate was 6.6%. Other critics point to the country's mounting debt.
Martinelli noted that there are many professions and skills that are needed but without qualified Panamanians to exercise them.

Private sector organizations have long warned that qualified personnel are hard to find and, a local study earlier this year indicated that companies seeking bilingual accountants, financiers, administrative assistants, sales managers, engineers, laborers, mechanics and customer service representatives are coming up short.

The secretary general of the General Confederation of Workers of Panama, Mariano Mena, rejected Martinelli’s claim and said the president is living in in another country, and that in Panama unemployment is even higher than official figures show.

Mena brought up  an old contention regarding how to measure the rate of unemployment in the country. It is currently done by asking the person if in the last three months he has looked for work. "It is wrong because many of the jobs come without the mandatory social benefits", he said. Martinelli told CNN that the banking and real estate industries are very strong, and said the country will receive 2 million tourists this year.

"In Panama we have no bad loans, in Panama things are built, financed, paid for and sold.There there is no crisis," he said. Between 2011 and 2014 an avalanche of infrastructure projects is expected in both the private and the public, which will involve an investment of $6 billion. The Panama Canal expansion, construction of the Metro and the road realignment are some of the most important.

He did not include a major mining project expected to cost around $4.5 billion