Puerto Rico's private sector employment reached a positive milestone in November.
According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics private sector employment rose in November for the 13th consecutive month on a year-over-year basis. This meant that not only was the employment level for November higher than that for November 2013 but November 2013 had been higher than that of November 2012.
Advantage Business Consulting President Vicente Feliciano earlier this year said year-over-year gains in private sector employment, as found in the bureau's employer survey, are signs of a strengthening Puerto Rico economy.
The November 2014 private sector employment level was 0.8% higher than the November 2012 private sector employment level.
The bureau's household survey indicated Puerto Rico's November unemployment rate was 14.0%, which was even with October's rate. The November rate was down 1.2 percentage points from the rate in November 2013 but up 0.9 percentage points from the rate's recent low of 13.1% in July.
According to the bureau's household survey, Puerto Rico's total employment had a 27 month long month-to-month slide from July 2012 to September 2014. However, total employment went up for the second consecutive month in November.
In other Puerto Rico news, on Friday Gov. Alejandro García Padilla signed a bill easing the way to public private partnerships. According to the governor's office, the law promotes public-private partnerships for smaller scale projects, creating a mechanism to facilitate their execution, without sacrificing the controls needed to protect the public interest.
