JOBS: Retail and wholesale jobs up hotels down

WITH PANAMA’S  hotels suffering from an overabundance of rooms and declining visits from Brazil and Colombia following currency devaluation  a predicted  shrinking of staff is underway.

In the first half  of 2015 hotels and restaurants trimmed staff, by 2.4 percent to 30,032 jobs.

Meanwhile report from the Office of the Comptroller indicates that between January and June, a total of 125,327 people were employed in the wholesale and retail sectors in Panama.

Of those, 82,430 people were employed in the retail sector, 6.4 percent more than the same period last year.

Positive growth was also recorded in the manufacturing sector, which increased 2 percent to 53,342 people.