It is estimated that between 2015 and 2020, Panama will need to hire around 68,000 employees with technical specialties, and the logistics sector will be the leader in the demand.
According to a labor market study carried out by the Ministry of Labor and Labor Development (Mitradel), estimates for from demand companies for technical personnel is high, with the logistics, industry, tourism, agriculture and construction sectors being those that most need staff with these capabilities.
The General Director of Labor at Mitradel, Judith Aparicio, explained to Elcapitalfinanciero.com that “ … the reality of the country is that 58% of Panamanian companies fail to fill the vacancies they need in a satisfactory manner.”
“… The logistics sector leads the demand for technical jobs in Panama, which according to Mitradel’s estimates, between 2015 and 2020 required 35,507 contracts. It is followed by the industry sector, which required 26,819 technical jobs in the same period, and the tourism sector, which in these five years needed to fill 4,113 vacancies and agriculture, with 3,203.“
Lack of personal skills or soft skills, is also a problem in the country. Aparició added that “ … companies are not managing to get personnel with soft skills, that is to say, with values such as discipline and honesty, for example.“
One of the main reasons companies leave Panama is the lack of skilled workers. A company cannot function without workers when 58% of the companies cannot find people to fill positions and foreign workers cannot get work permits without months of paper work, companies just mover to less favorable places like Colombia which has much better availability of workers. Hopefully someone in Panama’s government will see the simple solutions is to allow SKILLED workers to easily immigrate to Panama. Long term Panama also need to invest in the education system so that more Panamanians can become skilled workers to fill higher level positions