If you’re looking for work, you may be interested to know that it’s a good time to find a job in Panama.
Panama led all the countries studied recently by Gallup, the big research firm, with 60 percent of Panamanians saying that things look rosy, job-wise. Construction on the expanded Panama Canal probably has a lot to do with their enthusiasm.
Gallup surveyed 1,000 adults in 145 countries in 2014 to see if it is a good time or bad time to find a job. Worldwide, just 36 percent agree that it is a good time, which is an increase of 2 percent over 2013.
Overall, the North American region of the world did best with 51 percent of adults affirming that it is a good time to find a job, up 13 percentage points compared with the previous year. The increase was led primarily by the U.S., which registers a 14 percent increase over job searching sentiments in 2013. Canada is up 3 percentage points to 50, but our neighbors to the north were already at 47 percent. South of the U.S., Mexico tumbles from 47 percent in 2013 to 41 percent last year.
Following North America’s job optimism is Latin America (39 percent), Asia/Pacific (38 percent), Sub-Saharan Africa (35 percent), the former Soviet Union (31 percent), the Middle East and North Africa (30 percent) and, at the very bottom, the European Union (25 percent).
So what’s the doom and gloom in Europe all about? Well, for starters, the E.U. has had a far more difficult time getting its economies back on track from the global recession, for a number of reasons, including an austerity approach used by some countries.
The biggest improvement in the European Union comes from Ireland, which increases its positive outlook by 30 percent, jumping from just 10 percent of Irish adults who thought it was a good time to find a job in 2013 to 40 percent last year. The U.K. is up from 17 percent to 43 percent. Overall, though, the most optimism in the E.U. comes out of Germany where 55 percent say it is a good time to nab that job you’ve always wanted.
Jawohl!
