by Rod Hughes

No wonder Costa Rica’s unemployment has dropped to the lowest level in Latin America. Costa Rica’s largest newspaper, La Nacion, reported today that competition is fierce among companies to hire such tourism necessities as hotel managers and chefs, or vital construction personnel such as electricians, plumbers and engineers. And bilingual personnel for the some 20 call centers in the country, which employ around 20,000, are being pirated with higher salaries from other companies.

According to the International Labor Organization, a UN agency, Costa Rica’s jobless rate sank from a respectable 6% for the past decade to 4.8% last year, reported the English-language weekly, The Tico Times. “Costa Rica’s economic performance stands out among Central American countries and the rest of Latin America,” said the ILO’s labor expert Leonardo Ferreira. And that is not all, he told the newspaper, the country’s economic growth of 6.3% bettered Latin America’s average of 5.5%

Granted, all Caribbean and Latin American countries’ unemployment sank, but none could come close to this country’s figures except Honduras. Uruguay’s is at 10%, having improved nearly two points, Colombia’s is at 12%, Brazil’s is 9.7%, Venezuela’s is 9%. Even the U.S. figure of 5% (as of December) was not as good, reported Alex Leff, The Tico Times on line edition editor.

Moreover, probably because of the competition among companies for skilled Costa Rican technical workers, income among the employed rose 9.3% last year and the majority–73%–were quality and salaried jobs as opposed to free-lance or jobs of doubtful stability. Meanwhile, a construction company that wants to hire a carpenter, an electrician, or even an accountant, has to dangle a more attractive salary in front of an employed worker to lure him away from his present employer.

by Rod Hughes

Costa Rica’s oil refinery, Recope, has discarded a plan that would double capacity, deeming the project “unprofitable.” The project would have raised the current daily output from 20,000 barrels to 40,000. Still, something will have to be done to fill the country’s appetite of just under 50,000 barrels per day and the projected demand increase of 10% yearly.

Recope had hoped to see a bid of around $165 million for the project but the most viable it received was for $425 million. So the refinery is shelving results of the bidding and is seeking other ways of filling demand without prohibitive price increases to its consumers. “Recope isn’t going to launch this country on a project that’s not feasible,” said William Ulate, the refinery’s International Projects and Commerce manager.

Ulate added that Recope is not discarding the possibility of enlarging the plant to process 60,000 barrels of crude daily, but is simply “reformulating” it. Such a capacity would not only allow flexibility but allow it more favorable rates in buying on the international market. Possibly, China’s National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) can help by running a feasiblity study under an agreement it signed with Recope.

CNPC could offer financing and even do the construction job on the refinery. But, according to Ulate, nothing is committed with the oriental company and if RECOPE ecope sees a better deal, it will opt to take it.