Businesses Seek Workers Abroad
by Rod Hughes
Who ever heard of a supposedly Third World country where local business looks abroad for labor? But precisely that is happening in Costa Rica, where unemployment at well below 5% and a lack of capacity in training programs has businesses scrambling to find skilled labor.
In most Third World countries, immigration policies are quite protectionist and obtaining a work permit nearly impossible. So it was in Costa Rica until this century began. As little as three years ago, one of the biggest national resentments was illegal immigration from poverty-stricken Nicaragua and violence-torn Colombia. But in the past two years, the supposed danger from Nicaraguans taking jobs away from Ticos has become a non-issue. (It was never the burning political issue that it is currently with Mexican labor in the United States.)
The reality here is that business is growing so fast that neither training nor the labor pool itself can keep up, as anyone can attest who has tried to find a carpenter, accountant or plumber lately. But businesses are putting pressure on the Arias Administration to smooth the way for foreign skilled labor to get work visas. And not all the demand for labor comes from multi-nationals that have settled here.
A recent article in the English-language weekly The Tico Times illustrates the plight of a 20-year-old family plastics manufacturing business in Desamparados, a southern suburb of San Jose. The Costa Rican family started with the plant in their house, then moved the operation into an old bread factory down the street, reported financial writer Peter Krupa. Today, Plasticos CMB turns out injection-molded products for supermarkets and has ambitions to produce items for the big-time companies operating in the country’s free zones.
But the snag in their expansion plan: no trained workers. Last year, Krupa notes, the government’s National Training Institute (INA) turned out 297 plastics technicians. The Chamber of Industries estimates that the need for this specialty is 1,500. “We have problems getting qualified labor because the knowledge required injection (molding) is scarce,” the company’s CEO, Alex Villalobos, told Krupa.
At best, manufacturing workers were not plentiful before the economy’s expansion hit critical mass: only 250,000 Costa Ricans labor in factories, 13% of the work force. The smokeless industry the country has striven to attract has a tendency to need skills not at all plentiful in Latin America, Asia or Africa. But that is precisely why a company like Proctor and Gamble settled here, currently employing 1,200 in back-office accounting and services here.
Another article in the same Tico Times edition notes that P & G is looking to expand here to open a Regional Center of Business Transformation for the Americas. They are undaunted by the shortage of skilled professional help—in fact, an official P & G statement mentioned that it was because of Costa Rica’s highly trained work force that it is explanding its operation.
Not surprisingly, La Nacion today reported that the burgeoning construction industry is seeking engineers in topography and electrical installation, technical designers and fine carpentry. But even the culinary industry is desperately searching abroad for chefs and the demand for computer-related engineers is serious. And the companies are not only combing the region but also probing such countries as Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela and southern Mexico. Jose Peres, Central American delegate for the International Organization for Immigration, feels that the country’s northern neighbor alone cannot fill the gap. “Construction in Costa Rica uses workers of a high level, such as in big hotels” he says, “I ask myself if Nicaragua has this kind of work force. I doubt it.”
Immigration Director Mario Zamora confirmed that he was getting heat to make it easier for foreign professionals to get limited-time work visas. “There are companies unable to accept new contracts because they don’t have the personnel. We’re considering safe ways to bring in personnel without displacing the local work force,” he admits.
But the labor situation has another face: the influx in Nicaraguan agricultural and other unskilled work, steadily growing since the 1980s and a worry as little as two years ago, has stopped increasing. In a country where, at one time, Costa Rican students picked coffee to finance their studies or help their families, Nicaraguans have largely taken over jobs most locals consider “beneath them.” The labor picture has changed radically in less than a generation, thanks to the foresight of succeeding governments who made universal education their top priority for 50 years.
March 28th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
I read a post about the schooling in Costa Rica, although I work predominantly from home to make a move to CR for me would not be an issue but my wife is a teacher how tough would it be for her?
April 5th, 2008 at 10:47 am
There are many different ways to qualify for residency. You can look here for some basic information:
www.america…
Some allow you to work and some don’t. If she is willing to teach English It might be profitable, and expedient, to contact one of the multinational companies. They are probably hiring English teachers to improve their employee’s command of the language. They could justify hiring a native speaker with teaching credentials in order to get a work permit, particularly with the connections they have.