Panama Canal Expansion Project - Employment Generation

Employment Generation

According to the ACP, the canal expansion's impact on employment will first be observed in jobs directly generated by its construction. Approximately 35,000 to 40,000 new jobs will be created during the construction of the third set of locks, including 6,500 to 7,000 additional jobs that will be directly related to the project during the peak years of construction.

However, officials state that the most important impacts on employment will be medium and long term, and will come from the economic growth brought about by extra income generated by the expanded canal and the economic activities produced by the increase in canal cargo and vessel transits.

The labor required for construction of the third set of locks will, in its vast majority, be done by Panamanians. To ensure the availability of Panamanian labor necessary for the third set of locks project and its connected activities, the ACP and public and private authorities will work jointly to train the required workforce with sufficient lead time, so that it has the necessary competencies, capabilities, and certifications. The costs of these training programs are included in the cost estimates of the project.

Critics dismiss this as pure demagogy, noting that by the ACP's own studies, at the peak of construction there will be fewer than 6,000 jobs created, and that some of these will be highly skilled posts filled by foreigners because there are no Panamanians qualified to fill them.

Among those who oppose the canal expansion proposal is Panama's construction workers' union, SUNTRACS. The union's secretary general, Genaro Lopez, argues that while some construction jobs will be created by the project, the debt that Panama incurs to build a third set of locks will not be defrayed by increased canal usage and thus an increased part of canal revenues will go toward paying the debt, reducing the waterway's contributions to the national government's general fund, in turn reducing money for road projects, public schools, police protection, and other government services.

Critics also claim that the project lacks an accompanying social development plan. Then-President Torrijos has since accepted the request to develop one with the mediation of the United Nations Development Programme.