Three interesting news today

These are three interesting news from the United States, Dominican Republic and Bahamas. The first states that unemployment has reached its highest levels during this crisis in US’ counties that: had experienced a real estate boom, are manufacturing dependent and had high unemployment level before the crisis. These are bad news for countries with similar characteristics, as Mexico.

The second is about Dominican Republic’s accumulated pension funds which currently amounts 5.3% of this country GDP, and the program of coverage extension of the highly subsidized by the State health insurance which will be launched in the next months. Dominican Republic has significantly reformed the social security in the last years. In the case of pension, the model of individual accounts was implemented, and in the case of healthcare, the model of separation of functions was adopted, as in Colombia.

The third is about the implementation of an unemployment benefit in Bahamas intended to alleviate the negative effects of the global crisis. This program had been already announced few weeks ago (here). Although current benefits will be funded by National Insurance Board’s reserves (the social security agency of the country), it has been stated that in the future some contributions will be established, which in fact will create a proper unemployment insurance. The need of unemployment insurance becomes more evident during crisis moments as we noted in a previous note.