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Panama HUMAN RESOURCES AND INCOME
A 1985 World Bank study concluded that in spite of a relatively
well-educated work force, unemployment was Panama's "gravest
economic and social problem." The unemployment rate climbed
steadily, from 8.1 percent in 1978 to 11.8 percent in 1985. The
study predicted that the unemployment situation would further
deteriorate unless the government took forceful measures to change
structural rigidities in the labor code and market. Legislation
approved in March 1986 addressed some of the rigidities in the 1972
labor code. Those changes may have been responsible, at least in
part, for the lowering of the unemployment rate in 1986 to 10
percent.
Data as of December 1987
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