Caribbean island economy will receive an ill-timed setback in its fourth year of recession, as Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc's has decided to eliminate 6,000 jobs at plants in Puerto Rico and elsewhere.

The Pfizer restructuring resulted in an 18 percent reduction of its global work force, in addition to it, two Puerto Rico plants in Caguas and Carolina have been shuttered and the downsizing of a third plant, in Guayama has been proposed, over the next 30 months.

Local officials state that there will be a loss of about 1,500 jobs from Pfizer's 4,000 staff in Puerto Rico. Economist Vicente Feliciano, President of San Juan-based Advantage Business Consulting said, “This is an industry trend hitting Puerto Rico. It's not a reflection of our competitiveness, but it will hurt”.

Last year, Pfizer acquired rival drugmaker Wyeth. It announced that six research sites will be closed as part of a cost-cutting and effectiveness campaign, in the month of November last year.

The Company declared that it was dropping operations at plants in Ireland, Britain, Germany and the mainland United States as well as Puerto Rico. According to the Puerto Rico Labor Department, the Pfizer closures in Puerto Rico reflect a decade-old trend, which has rendered many people jobless there and reduced the island's manufacturing sector from 157,000 to 90,400 jobs.