BLS: Jobs down, wages inch up in PR

Payment fell and wages inched up in Puerto Rico during the first quarter of 2014, the federal government reported Thursday.
Puerto Rico’s employment fell 1.8 percent to 914,900 while the average weekly wage rose 1.4 percent to $521, according to the report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The overall U.S. economy posted a 1.7 percent employment increase and 3.8 percent gain in the average weekly wage to $1,027.
Puerto Rico’s capital city San Juan posted an employment loss of 1.2 percent and a thin 0.8 percent wage increase on a year-over-year basis.
A separate report issued Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau showed that household incomes in Puerto Rico plunged 2.3 percent last year, a steeper drop than any of the 50 states.
Puerto Rico is struggling to pull out of an economic downturn dating back to 2006 and is grappling with high unemployment (13.1 percent) and public debt of $73 billion.
In 2013, the poverty rate for Puerto Rico was 45.4 percent, which was not statistically different from its rate of 44.9 percent in 2012, the Census Bureau reported. The rate in the U.S. territory remains nearly triple the national average and far above any state. Mississippi was the highest at 24 percent.
The poverty rate is a key economic indicator often used by policy makers to evaluate current economic conditions within communities and to make comparisons between sectors of the population. It measures the percentage of people whose income fell below the poverty threshold. Federal and state governments use poverty estimates to allocate funds to local communities. Local communities often use these estimates to identify the number of individuals or families eligible for various programs.
In 2013, about 48.8 million people or 15.8 percent of the U.S. population had income below the poverty level. Neither the number nor the rate for 2013 was statistically different from 2012.
By : KEVIN MEAD
kevin@caribbeanbusinesspr.com; cbprdigital@gmail.com
BLS: Jobs down, wages inch up in PR

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