SAN JUAN – Puerto Rico’s deep and prolonged recession has led to a severe debt crisis.
Everywhere in the United States commonwealth, private-sector jobs are being lost.
Total employment in Puerto Rico has fallen from 1.25 million in the last quarter of the 2007 fiscal year workers to less than a million almost a decade later.
Without employment, large numbers of Puerto Ricans (who are US citizens) have emigrated.
But, despite this flight, the unemployment rate is now 12.4%.
Without job prospects, the labor participation rate has plummeted to 40%, two-thirds of the level on the US mainland.
About 60% of Puerto Rico’s children live in poverty.
The commonwealth’s debt position is clearly unsustainable..."
Bad times, read on!
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