By Girish Gupta
CARACAS, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Headhunters across Latin America
are tapping Venezuela for low-cost professionals as a deepening
economic crisis has left many skilled workers earning less money
than taxi drivers and waiters.
Highly-trained Venezuelans are seeking to escape a decaying
socialist economy in which they often have to work second jobs
and spend hours in line to buy basic goods such as milk or
diapers.
The crisis has created a fertile market for global search
firms including Korn/Ferry KFY.N , Caldwell Partners CWL.TO
and Stanton Chase as well as smaller regional companies.
Apple AAPL.O software developer Hector Ghinaglia, 24, was
earning about $130 a month at the black market exchange rate
until he was recruited through LinkedIn LNKD.N .
"One day a message appeared offering me work," said
Ghinaglia, who was offered $900 a month plus the cost of his
flight and visa to work in Colombia.
He is happy with the move despite the higher cost of living
there.
The most sought-after professionals include IT experts who
face few opportunities in Venezuela's withering private sector
and oil and gas engineers loathe to work for state-run PDVSA,
which under late socialist leader Hugo Chavez became focused on
social development projects rather than operational efficiency.
"If we're looking to fill a special position, such as a
geologist or a specialization in oil or gas, Venezuela is a
strong option for us," said Claudio Fernaud, the managing
director of Stanton Chase's operation in Argentina.
Headhunters have in the past targeted Latin American
countries at times of economic crises, including Argentina in
the early 2000s and Brazil in the 1980s.
'TRAGEDY'
Particularly destructive to salaries in Venezuela is the
collapse of the bolivar currency, which has left an iPhone
costing several months' worth of an executive's salary.
Currency controls peg the bolivar at 6.3 per dollar but the
black market rate governs much of the economy and is now at 687
bolivars per dollar, having weakened from 173 bolivars at the
start of 2015.
"Everybody is looking for payment in hard currency: dollars,
pounds, euros - anything but bolivars," said Leonardo Lacruz,
the Venezuela director of multinational headhunter Korn/Ferry,
adding he has seen "desperation" among executives to leave the
country.
"People do the math and realize they're making nothing
here."
The Panama branch of Stanton Chase said it receives 30 to 40
resumes per day from Venezuela compared with just one a day from
Colombia.
Local businesses are unable to keep salaries in line with
rising consumer prices, let alone pay qualified professionals at
rates that compete with neighboring countries.
These firms constantly worry that their skilled technicians
will be poached, said Juan Carlos Dao, president of Bancaribe,
one of the country's top 10 banks.
"It's a tragedy that's very hard to deal with," Dao said in
an interview earlier this year. "This is happening to everybody,
to all the major corporations in the country."
In turn, foreign companies have little incentive to hire in
Venezuela due to price controls that force some to sell at a
loss and currency controls that leave them unable to repatriate
revenue.
Steady devaluations of the bolivar have caused billions of
dollars in balance sheet losses for multinationals ranging from
General Motors (NYSE:GM) GM.N to Energizer ENR.N .
MCDONALD'S OR MATH?
Around 5 percent of Venezuela's population of 30 million has
left the country since Chavez came to power in 1999, said
Caracas-based sociologist Tomas Paez, who has published papers
and books on migration.
The government denies the country is losing talent but it
does not offer statistics on how many leave.
Venezuelan authorities do not restrict emigration though
many who want to leave say they don't have the money to start a
new life elsewhere.
Most migrants often don't have the luxury of a job contract
before they leave so they hope relatives and friends will be
able to help when they arrive in other Latin American countries
and especially Miami in the United States.
Frustration with Venezuela's dysfunction has led some
professionals to sign agreements that may be less than ideal.
Andreina, 35, says she was earning around $300 a month at
the black market rate as manager of corporate affairs for a
major multinational in Caracas.
Sick of being unable to find milk and diapers for her young
son, she signed up to LinkedIn and was quickly scooped up by an
Ecuadorean firm.
She moved in April. Despite now bringing in $2,500 a month,
Andreina, who asked that her surname not be published, is aware
she is earning less than half what she would in a normal market.
"They pay so little because they know our quality of life is
so bad in Venezuela," she said, adding that her outgoings were
now much greater than back home.
But the allure of leaving still shines bright for many.
"I'm earning the same as someone who works in McDonald's (NYSE:MCD),"
said 28-year-old math professor Anthonny Arias in the city of
Merida, an expert in mathematical logic who makes the equivalent
of $4 per week at the black market exchange rate.
"Who has more responsibility, someone frying French fries or
someone teaching the next generation?"