Mexico City, Mar 7 — "Damaris," with lush black hair and inquisitive dark eyes, is a single mom who for the past four years has been a sex worker in Mexico City, fighting day by day against discrimination and police harassment. "We ask people not to judge us," she said. "Police persecution is horrible. They say you're a whore and almost treat you like an animal. They tell you 'If you want to n...

By Wendy Anders Accenture PLC is one of over 40 companies that will seek to fill 2,700 positions at Costa Rica’s biggest multilingual fair this month. But they are the only employer in the lot that offers a day for employers to work accompanied by their pets. These days, global competition is not just about employees taking stock of their language and other skills - companies too are strivin...

By Wendy Anders A global alliance of civil society organizations and trade unions is calling on Fyffes to establish and implement a global, company-wide policy to ensure the respect of workers’ rights throughout its supply chains, including the freedom of workers to join independent trade unions, and for Fyffes to recognise and engage in collective bargaining with unions. "Fyffes is the numb...

Starbucks sent the following message to all partners (employees) on January 31st 2017 Regarding creating jobs for veterans On January 29, Starbucks announced plans to hire 10,000 refugees around the world in the 75 countries where it does business over the next five years. This plan is an extension of Starbucks ongoing commitment to create pathways to meaningful employment for veterans, militar...

By Wendy Anders The U.S. Embassy in the western San José district of Pavas is hiring three full-time bodyguards. The position is open from now until January 24. Bodyguards provide armed protective security to the U.S. Department of State to ensure the safety of the U.S. Ambassador to Costa Rica or the Chargé, in the absence of the Chief of Mission. The position requires both regular sched...

By Wendy Anders Recent incursions of European tourists into protected marine areas off northern Costa Rica’s Pacific coast has officials concerned about the impact of promoting illegal fishing among visitors, said the Costa Rican National Coast Guard Service recently. Fishermen have been documented aiding tourists from Spain, Italy and Germany mainly in the waters off Guanacaste province’s S...

By Wendy Anders   Recent data from the Costa Rican Tourist Board (ICT, in Spanish) shows a full 27 percent of the country's workforce perceiving income or wealth from their connection, either direct or indirect, with the tourism industry. A new alliance between public safety institutions and the tourism sector promises to add an extra level of protection for visitors, said judicial i...

By Wendy Anders Zollner in Cartago, a new foreign investment in 2016. This year saw 40 new investment projects in the multinational services, life sciences, advanced and light manufacturing, and food industry sectors, reported the Costa Rican Coalition for Development Initiatives (CINDE), in conjunction with the Ministry of Foreign Trade (COMEX) in a press conference yesterday. The busin...

By Wendy Anders Alejandra Mora is the head of the Costa Rican Women's Institute, dedicated to advancing and supporting women's status and involvement in society. Women’s participation in Costa Rica’s private sector is disproportionately low in regards to their educational level, reported the country’s business daily El Financiero recently. While 66 percent of Costa Rican university gradu...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solís views local seafood products on display at a 'buy local' CNP event. To strengthen local livestock producers and fisheries, the majority of which are micro, small, and medium-sized businesses, the Costa Rican government has asked all public institutions to purchase Costa Rican-raised products. Minister of Agriculture Luis Felipe A...

Cancun, Mexico, Oct 15 — Mexico has signed a memorandum of understanding with El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras that lays the groundwork for a joint plan to support migrant workers, Mexico's Labor and Social Welfare Secretariat said. Suger cane workers. Under the Temporary Migrant Labor Program, workers from the three Central American countries will be authorized to work in Mexico for a p...

By Wendy Anders Source: Taco Bell US Ten percent of Taco Bell Costa Rica's workforce is disabled. The fast food restaurant chain leads the country in hiring people with disabilities, reported Costa Rica’s daily La Nación yesterday. Almost half of the more than 67 disabled workers staffing Taco Bell Costa Rica's outfits are deaf, many have some degree of cognitive impairment, and one work...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rican school children, Wikimedia. Costa Rica’s government initiated a program to subsidize children under the age of 18 to help them stay in, or re-enter, the educational system. A budget increase of CRC375 million (US$688 million) was allocated for this specific initiative aimed at eradicating child labor, and thus reduce poverty, stated the Ministry of Labor and S...

By Wendy Anders With more than 40 per cent of its workforce engaged in informal labor, Costa Rica’s Labor Ministry was pleased to reach an agreement under the auspices of the International Labor Organization (ILO) with employers, workers, and other governmental representatives on bringing these workers into the country’s formal labor force. The Labor Ministry, the Social Security Agency (CCS...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rica’s young, male, and informal workers are the most vulnerable to occupational injury, as reflected in the findings of the Labor Ministry’s 2015 occupational health research presented Monday. Nearly half of the over 115,000 workplace injuries that occurred last year were in the 20 - 35 age group, and 80 percent were in men, reported the Labor Ministry’s occupational h...

Source: OWC Job generation, increased tourism and healthy profits from equipment sales are the highlights of a new market research report by Technavio. Costa Rica gets a special mention within the report: The research study covers the present scenario and growth prospects of the global sports fishing equipment market for 2016-2020. To calculate the market size, the report has taken into con...

By Wendy Anders Yesterday, on National Parks Day, President Luis Guillermo Solís met with park guards on a visit to Tenorio Volcano National Park in the northern Guanacaste mountain range. Tenorio National Park is where Costa Rica's enchanting Río Celeste, or Blue River, is located. Park rangers had been threatening to close one or more national parks if their repeated requests for increa...

By Wendy Anders Over the past month, leaders from about 20 unions and civic groups have held a series of meetings to define a common agenda to defend the rights of the country’s public sector employees, announced the Communication and Energy Industry Employees Union (ASDEICE). After their third meeting yesterday at the Ambassador Hotel in San José they announced a protest planned for Thursda...

Pixabay Commons More than 82 thousand direct jobs and 43 thousand indirect jobs generated, a return of $3.179 billion on incentives received (Net Country Benefit), added to a major technology transfer, incorporation of key business innovations, dynamic productive linkages that galvanize the entry of small- and medium-sized businesses to the global economy, as well as the implementation of nove...

Wikimedia Commons Costa Rica is the second most innovative economy in Latin America, and it is ranked  45 in the world according to the Global Innovation Index. The index gave Costa Rica a 78.5 score in political stability and safety but only 50.1 in terms of government effectiveness. Moreover, Costa Rica's ease of doing business received a score of 81. The country is ranked 64 in the world...

By Wendy Anders Construction workers on the build site of Croc's Casino Resort in Jaco Beach Business leaders expressed their concerns over stagnant unemployment after 2nd quarter data was made public by the National Census and Statistics Institute (INEC, in Spanish). The INEC announced last week that 9.4 percent of the work force, or over 200,000 people, are unemployed, a figure that ha...

Establishing a business enterprise in Costa Rica is a fairly straightforward process that has considerable immigration benefits for foreigners. Many foreign investors feel empowered to expand their businesses and make them profitable once they are residents; a few of them, however, choose to ignore national labor laws and hire foreign employees without the adequate immigration permits. The lega...

By Wendy Anders At ten this morning, the country’s public service regulator, Roberto Jiménez, received taxi sector leaders as they demanded to be heard one more time on the issue of Uber’s legality in the country. Jiménez reiterated that his agency, the Aresep, has done everything in its power to regulate public transportation services, and that any further decisions are pending court decisi...

By Wendy Anders Last week Citi inaugurated two new buildings in Costa Rica, and announced 400 new positions to be filled by the end of this year, stated the company in a press release. New York City-based Citigroup, Inc., or Citi, is a multinational investment banking and financial services corporation suffered huge losses during the global financial crisis of 2008 and received a massive sti...

By Wendy Anders Within two months a new mechanism for insuring domestic workers will be ready to be implemented, stated Gustavo Picado, finance manager of the Costa Rican Social Security Bureau (CCSS), the country’s public health service agency. Speaking to Monumental Radio last week, bureau officials said they aimed to increase coverage of this vulnerable group. Only 14 percent of Costa Ric...

Source:; Getinge GroupSan Jose, July 21st 2016. Getinge Group announced the establishment of its new Shared Services Center (SSC) in Costa Rica. The new office, located in Avenida Escazu, employs 59 associates who provide services to partners and customers in United States and Canada. The services provided are in Finance and Accounting, with the possibility of expanding into other areas such a...

By Wendy Anders Yesterday Costa Rican Foreign Trade Minster Alexander Mora announced the start of $2.5 million construction on the Invenio University campus in Guanacaste that will house the Illinois, U.S.-based Continuum Data Center, LLC. Continuum Data offers purpose built data centers and colocation solutions to businesses. Starting with a staff of 20 they plan to eventually grow to 300 a...

A revolving door cabinet has been an unfortunate staple of the administration of President Luis Guillermo Solis, but the latest departure of a top-level official has shaken Costa Rica in a most unusual manner. For 26 months, Guillermo Santana did a less-than-stellar job as the director of the Rail Institute of Costa Rica. There were a few commuter train crashes, and there was also the dubious h...

By Wendy Anders Concentrix is a high value business services company operating in 25 different countries and a subsidiary of the Fortune 500 Synnex corporation based in Fremont, California. The company, which is celebrating 10 years of operations in Costa Rica, is currently looking for recruitment specialists, account supervisors, quality and finance analysts, customer service representative...

By Wendy Anders Massachusetts, U.S.-based life sciences company Precision Coating Co., Inc. (PCCI), in its first move to a manufacturing site outside of the U.S., announced in a press statement today they will open a plant in Coyol, Alajuela at the end of the month. The plant will employ sophisticated automated technology in the production of fluoropolymer and derivative coatings used in...

Safran Identity & Security, the global leader in identity and security, has announced it is expanding its business activities in Central America. The company has acquired the former office location of the Colombian-based Carvajal Group in Costa Rica. For Safran Identity & Security, this new location marks another important strategic development for its business activities in Central Ame...

Source: Heineken Despite volatile global markets and growing security issues, organizations continue to leverage global expansion strategies to remain competitive and to grow. Yet, few organizations are prepared for the challenges world events have on their business, including the impact on cost of expatriate packages. Mercer’s 22nd annual Cost of Living Survey finds that factors including ...

The multinational consulting firm McKinsey & Company, dedicated to helping institutions in the private, public and social sectors achieve lasting success, today welcomed Costa Rican Minister of Foreign Trade Alexander Mora to the firm’s facility in San José, where McKinsey recently added a modern design center that will support the firm’s global operations. The firm’s Costa Rica facility ...

Pixabay Commons Of all immigration proceedings available to foreigners in Costa Rica, the process of getting a work permit for employees is one of the most Byzantine. What makes getting work permits in Costa Rica so complicated is that more than one government agency is involved in the process. The Directorate of Immigration and the Ministry of Labor must review the applications before they...

US Embassy in Costa Rica The United States Diplomatic Mission in San Jose is seeking eligible and qualified applicants for the position of Security Escort. This position is open only to United States citizens living in Costa Rica. The position is temporary and will not exceed one year from hire date. All applicants must have the required work and/or residency permits to be eligible for c...

PALO ALTO, Calif., June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- AirXpanders Inc. (ASX: AXP) (AirXpanders or Company) a medical device company focused on the design, manufacture, sale and distribution of the AeroForm® tissue expander, today announces that it has received commitments from sophisticated and professional investors to subscribe for 26,315,790 CHESS Depositary Interests (CDIs) (representing 8,771,930 s...

Flickr Commons LinkedIn, the largest business-oriented social platform and one of the most popular social networks in the world, is warning members about a major data breach and is forcing a massive reset of passwords as a security measure. An update posted to the LinkedIn corporate blog yesterday explained the situation: In 2012, LinkedIn was the victim of an unauthorized access and discl...

Wikimedia Commons The U.S. Mission in San Jose is seeking eligible and qualified applicants for the position of Cashier. OPEN TO: All Interested Candidates POSITION: Cashier, FSN-8; FP-6* OPENING DATE: May 9, 2016 CLOSING DATE: May 26, 2016 WORK HOURS: Fulltime 40 hours/week SALARY: *Not-Ordinarily Resident (NOR): FP-6 US$39,558 annual (Starting salary) * Ordinarily Resident ...

By Matt Kendall Now in its sixth year, Nearshore Americas’ seminal conference Nexus attracted 150 attendees and close to 20 sponsors to the Le Meridien hotel in San Francisco, the first time this tech-centric city has played host to the event. Kicking things off to a flying start was a fascinating and insightful keynote speaker, Laura Chinchilla, former President of Costa Rica, who presented...

Grupo Bimbo San Jose, May 5th, 2016. Grupo Bimbo – the world's largest baking company inaugurated its new Global Service Center today, in the district of Tres Rios, La Union de Cartago, which will provide support to the English speaking US market. The Costa Rican President, Luis Guillermo Solís; the Minister of Foreign Trade, Alexander Mora; CINDE’s managing director, Jorge Sequeira, ...