San Juan- The Puerto Rico Manufacturers Association (PRMA) is promoting the island’s industrial productivity and competitiveness by developing comprehensive occupational safety and health programs among its associates that meet personnel needs and increase employee retention.
“It is about assuming an integral vision of our human resources as the engine that moves Puerto Rico’s economy,” said Karen Mojica, PRMA’s executive vice president, during the organization’s Industrial Core Summit event in Ponce.
“What does our local talent need to be better, more productive, and make our businesses more competitive? It’s not just about traditional health benefits. It’s about how employers offer better benefits to retain their employees… how to manage occupational and interpersonal situations in the workplace. We are talking about the psychological and emotional well-being of employees,” Mojica added.
As part of its commitment to helping its affiliates create the conditions to retain their employees, PRMA presented a series of conferences highlighting changes to mandatory occupational safety provisions, labor accident prevention, dispute arbitration, compensation and benefits, and Artificial Intelligence.
The PRMA executive admitted that Puerto Rico’s workforce has been steadily declining since Hurricane Maria in 2017, and one of the island’s challenges is remaining competitive. Nevertheless, Mojica assured manufacturing is still one of the island’s economic pillars, contributing with 40% of the domestic gross product (GDP). Furthermore, Mojica argued that PRMA associates in both the industrial and service sectors account for 63% of Puerto Rico’s GDP.
Mojica also argued that “contrary to popular belief,” the island is experiencing a stabilization process that anticipates industrial expansion and the arrival of new manufacturing companies in Puerto Rico.
The executive cited a recent Manpower Group-sponsored study showing a 32% net increase in employment for the second quarter of 2026.
According to the Employment Expectations Survey, Puerto Rico ranked 16th among 42 countries worldwide in employment expectations for the April to June 2026 trimester. In terms of manufacturing, the island ranked third in employment growth for the year’s first semester, from January to March.
“What gives life to our industrial strength and our capacity as a manufacturing powerhouse is our Puerto Rican talent,” Mojica said.
To achieve the greatest possible competitiveness, Mojica highlighted PRMA’s commitment to providing its associates with the tools and resources to promote employee retention, health, and occupational safety. These tools and resources include better strategies and practices in the design of competitive compensation packages to attract and retain talent, while considering their economic impact in business operations.
The uneasiness of AI
According to Mojica, people might not know it, but Artificial Intelligence (AI) has already been incorporated in industries throughout Puerto Rico.
“Process automation is part of improving efficiency in industries and counteracting some increasing costs, while keeping production agile and speedy,” she said.
“Our workforce is being reinvented, not replaced… it is reinvented,” Mojica argued while assuring that a new kind of talent is now being hunted.
The demand is now for talent that is able to dominate AI, interpret data and apply the knowledge acquired in the improvement of processes and production.
“We are facing an undeniable challenge: our workforce has decreased, and our population is aging. Talent that is already hired needs to retrain and learn new skills to remain competitive. Both industries and human capital need those new skills,” said Mojica.
Convinced that the use of AI will continue to advance, the PRMA executive considered the most pressing challenge to be how to train the island’s human resources so they can navigate that wave.
It is part of PRMA’s mission to advocate for the conditions to increase competitiveness among its associates to promote Puerto Rico’s economic development, and human capital is but one of the organization’s fields of action.
PRMA’s scope
Founded in 1928, the PRMA has been a leader in the transformation of Puerto Rico’s industrial ecosystem for almost 100 years.
With over 1,000 affiliates, about 30% of them are manufacturing businesses and 70% are service entities servicing the manufacturing sector itself, the PRMA is a cross-section of the island’s industrial profile –composed mainly of small and medium-sized businesses. The organization has four main fields of action: infrastructure, government agility, fiscal policy, and human capital.
