Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Firing Freeze extended once again The Government announced yesterday that it will, once again, extend the firing freeze for both public and private workers that make less than Bs. 633,600 (US$ 295) a month. This is one of those tropical economic inventions that simply become useless in real life. The firing freeze has been in effect since May 2002. During that time, the official unemployment rate in Venezuela has been as high a s17.1% and as low as 10.9%. This clearly shows that the measure is in the end irrelevant in practical terms, but it makes for great grandstanding on the part of Government authorities who parade in front of the TV cameras, talking about protecting the weak and increasing employment. In reality, there are many ways to circumvent this regulation and it has been tried by both this Government as well as prior ones. 5:37:26 PM    comment []