Executive Search in Peru – 2021 Outlook
Peru Pays for Low Health Investments
Peru started 2020 on the right foot by taking early preventive measures against COVID-19, leading countries that imposed restrictions at the beginning of the pandemic. But, months later, countries around the world reported the high numbers of infections and deaths in Peru due to deficiencies of the quarantine and the strong economic fall that hit the country.
The main cause of the crisis was that Peru was caught with a policy of low investment in public health, resulting in a shortage of hospital beds and intensive care units (ICU), with poorly paid staff and a single laboratory capable of processing molecular tests.
Add to the social and economic pressure a political crisis with the change of 3 presidents within one week. After the controversial impeachment of Presiden Martín Vizcarra, the new interim president Manuel Merino was the subject of massive protests resulting in two deaths. Merino resigned after only five days and Francisco Sagasti agreed to serve as interim president until the next elections in April this year.
Economy in Peru
A lockdown of economic activity between March and July to combat the pandemic had a major impact on Peru. GDP fell 17.4% during the first semester of 2020, the worst decline since the 80’s, but the economy recovered slightly in the last quarter.
The sectors that were hit the hardest continue to be accommodation and restaurants -which fell 61.4% to November 2020- and transport, storage, mail and messaging, which fell 28% until the same period.
According to the international risk rating agency Moody’s Investors Service, Peru will achieve the highest growth in the region in 2021.
Business Expectations & Strategies for Cornerstone Peru
Between April and July 2020, more than 30,000 private companies took advantage of perfect suspension, an innovative government measure to allow 328,000 employees to separate from their organizations throughout the country. This contributed to 596,000 fewer jobs in the workplace.
However, the pandemic has brought about many positive changes in the corporate world of Peru. The transformation expected over the next few years include teleworking, telemedicine, virtual meetings to make decisions, online job interviews, distance training, digital documentation of legal value, new ways to measure productivity, artificial intelligence to filter job candidates vacancies, algorithms to streamline the movement of employees and increased staffing of freelancers and interim positions
Contact the author Diego Cubas at diego-cubas@cornerstone-group.com
For information on executive search services in Peru, visit Cornerstone Lima
