Despite the economic upheavals of the last few months, which were characterized by high inflation and moderate growth, the labor market remains on a stable recovery path. The unemployment rate reached a record 9.6% in July, a decrease of 1.5 percentage points compared to 11.3% in the same month last year, and is now at the level of 2018 and 2017. According to data presented this Thursday morning the unemployment rate reached again Piedad Urdinola, director of the Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE), demographer, said that job creation in Colombia also remained robust, with 1.1 million jobs recovered compared to the same period in 2022.
In this way, the labor market continues its comeback, shaking off the scars left by the lockdowns during the months of the health crisis. Director Urdinola was diplomatic and avoided one of the key questions: what are the reasons for the continued momentum in job creation in a context of slowing growth? Immediately afterwards, he emphasized that his review was limited to monthly statistical monitoring, DANE’s own work, and not to identifying cause-and-effect factors for macroeconomic phenomena.
Despite all the limitations and blind spots that come with measuring the Colombian labor market data, for July it is estimated that the labor force has reached 23.1 million people, an increase of 5.1% compared to 22.05 million registered jobs in July corresponds to the previous year. When examined by gender, the DANE diagnosis suggests that of this total, 674,000 jobs were regained by women, while 453,000 were filled by men.
A news that Urdinola considers “very important” since there is a consensus among the dysfunctional Colombian workforce about the limitations and other inequalities for women in terms of access and social protection. A positive fact that the director of the statistical organization notes “in all areas and geographical areas”. Another positive outcome is that the construction sector was the one that regained the most jobs in July, with 234,000 new contracts. A detail that seems like a breath of oxygen to the performance of a region whose numbers have been in free fall since January.
According to the DANE bulletin, the number of unemployed people fell by 269,000 people between the two months of July, falling from 7% to 6.2%. It should be remembered that, according to the parameters of the World Labor Organization, among its 51 million inhabitants, Colombia has 39 million people of working age. As expected, the population group that provided the largest increase in the figures presented this morning were adults between the ages of 25 and 54. The age range in which the greatest dynamism in the labor force is concentrated and where, according to the report, there are also significant improvements for women: “It is statistically significant because we remember that women were less involved in the labor market” .
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At the same time, the number of employed young people between the ages of 15 and 24 increased by 134,000 new jobs. A fact also stands out that points to changes in the configuration of the Colombian work and social world. Domestic work, which is often unpaid and is primarily the responsibility of women, resulted in a decline of 320,000 fewer people in this sector. In any case, a broader look suggests that the findings, while breathing new life, still paint a worrying picture. A look at the frightening figure of 2.45 million unemployed is enough to keep in mind that the positive development is only bringing the country back to the level of previous times and that there are still many structural challenges to be overcome.
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