*Costa Rica’s national statistics institute (Inec) has released new figures showing that the unemployment rate for the November 2024-January 2025 rolling quarter was 7.0%, up from 6.9% in the previous October-December 2024 rolling quarter. In year-on-year terms, Inec said there was no significant variation on the same quarter in 2023. In absolute terms, the unemployed population in the November 2024-January 2025 rolling quarter was 168,000 people, of whom 94,000 were men, and 73,000 were women. The same report also indicates an ongoing gender imbalance in unemployment, with a 7.7% unemployment rate for women compared with 6.5% for men. This compares with a 7.4% unemployment rate amongst women and 6.5% for men in the previous rolling quarter.