Expert: Jared Romey - 6/18/2009

Question
Hi Jared. I want to travel and work at the same time, and I am very interested in Puerto Rico. I was wondering if you could give me any information, such as what are job prospects like? What are the main jobs avaliable? What is Puerto Rico like generally? How expensive is Puerto Rico?Thank you very much, Sarah

Answer
Hello Sarah,

The job situation now is not good at all.  The government is in the process of laying off 10% of it's work force (about 30,000 people), which means that at the end of 2009 unemployment should be around 12-14% (the US is at 9% right now).

Also the economy is not doing well.  Puerto Rico has been in a recession/depression for 3 years already, and that will probably continue.  In fact, just last night I was out with a friend who mentioned that she has actively been looking to change jobs, for a year now and has had no luck finding anything.  She has a college degree, works in marketing with about 10 years experience, at a major worldwide company, and is bilingual.

In Puerto Rico, I would say that the costs compare to a large city in the US, although not as expensive as some place like LA or NY.  I was in Portland, OR and Miami, FL during the last few weeks, and found that dining at restaurants and supermarkets were definitely cheaper than here in PR.

For housing, you can find a studio apartment anywhere from probably $450 to $1000 in San Juan, specifically in the touristy, more expensive areas.  If you move out into other areas further from the beaches in San Juan, or look at living in other cities here, prices would be cheaper.

Having said all that, if you just want to find any job (waiting tables, teaching English, stuff like that) to pay the bills, and live on the beach, then you probably wouldn't have a problem finding something.

Major industries here are tourism, pharmeceutical manufacterers, construction and banking.  For a lot of positions here you would need to be bilingual.

Here are a couple useful websites:

www.endi.com
www.clasificadosonline.com
www.superpagespr.com
www.caribbeanbusinesspr.com

Hope this info helps,

Jared