Puerto Rico created 10,200 jobs in September compared with the same month a year earlier, a 1.1% increase, according to seasonally adjusted data from the Nonfarm Payroll Employment Survey of the Department of Labor and Human Resources. More than half the new jobs, 5,300, came in the Educational and Health Services sector, the biggest job creator, followed by Recreation and Hospitality with 4,700, of which 3,700 were hotel and restaurant jobs.
Manufacturing, which had been losing jobs for the past two years, began growing in the third quarter of this year and generated 2,100 jobs in September, the same number created in Trade, Transportation and Utilities. Losses came in Professional and Business Services, down 4,100 because of fewer administrative services jobs, and in Information, down 400.
In the public sector, losses at the federal level (200) and in Commonwealth government (1,200) were offset by a 1,200 increase in municipal jobs. The economy lost 1,700 jobs in 2025, a 0.2% decline, marking a slowdown after growth above 5% in the two years following the pandemic; 2021 to 2024 was the longest stretch of job growth in more than two decades.