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Commerce accounts for 20.2% of formal employment in the Dominican Republic

From Diario Libre · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Analysis Documents & data Context piece
  • The Dominican Republic’s commerce sector employed 1,037,060 people in 2025, or 20.2% of the country’s formal workforce, according to an ONEC analysis.
  • Commerce added 214,799 jobs between 2015 and 2025 and generated about 21% of the economy’s net employment growth during that period.
  • The sector employed more people than industry, construction, education, transport and public administration.

Commerce has become the Dominican Republic’s largest source of formal employment, accounting for 1,037,060 workers in 2025, or 20.2% of the country’s total formal jobs.

The figures come from an analysis by the National Organization of Commercial Enterprises, known by its Spanish acronym ONEC. The organization used data from the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic’s Continuous National Labor Force Survey.

The sector employed 822,261 people in 2015. Over the following decade, it added 214,799 jobs and contributed approximately 21% of the net employment created by the Dominican economy.

By employment volume, commerce surpassed industry, construction, education, transport and public administration. The analysis places the sector at the center of the country’s formal labor market, based on the growth recorded over the period.

About this summary

Originally published by Diario Libre in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.