*Costa Rica’s national statistics institute (Inec) has released new figures which show that the national unemployment rate was 7.8% in the December 2023 to February 2024 rolling quarter, a drop of 3.2 percentage points on the same quarter the previous year. This is also down from the 7.9% unemployment rate in the immediately preceding quarter ending in January. The Inec report shows a high gender imbalance in unemployment, with an 8.4% unemployment rate amongst women in the December 2023-February 2024 quarter, compared with just 7.4% for men.