Costa Rica was able to maintain a stable employment market during the last two years (2010-2011) with an official unemployment rate of 7.3%. Certain sectors of the economy have been harder hit then others. The hardest hit have been the construction and real estate sector followed by agriculture and manufacturing. Most of the job creation has come from the service industry and a large portion of it from foreign companies that have established call centers or specialized manufacturing in Costa Rica. According to the Costa Rican Investment Promotion Council (CINDE) there are over 200 multinational companies with operations in Costa Rica. As a comparison I have set forth the unemployment rates for selected countries: U.S. 8.6% U.K. 8.3% Spain 21.52% Argentina 7.2% Brazil 5.8% Canada 7.4% Chile 7.2% Ireland 14.5% Mexico 4.83%
