Unemployment in Chile falls to 8.9%, approaches pre-pandemic levels

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The unemployment rate in Chile fell to 8.9% in July. That’s 4.2% lower than the same period last year and the lowest level since March 2020, when the pandemic hit the country, the National Statistics Institute (INE) reported Tuesday.

The year-on-year increase is partly explained by the low comparison base of the previous year, when the health crisis and quarantine had pushed the unemployment rate to 13.1%, its highest level since 2010, the agency said.

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The figure was celebrated by Economy Minister Lucas Palacios, who stressed on Twitter that “we have very good news in terms of employment and can be optimistic about the future. A better health situation and the opening of the economy create thousands of opportunities in different sectors, leading to the creation of 108,000 jobs in the May-July quarter.”

Palacios noted that “this is the lowest level since March 2020, when the pandemic began. Exactly one year ago, unemployment reached 13.1%, and since then we have recovered 1,076,000 jobs.”

According to the INE report, the mobile quarter result is the result of the increase in the labor force (9.9%), which is lower than that of the employed (15.2%) and the decrease in the unemployed by 15.0%, the institute added.

Broken down by gender, the unemployment rate was 9.2% for women and 8.7% for men, down 3.3% and 4.8%, respectively.

Seasonally adjusted, the index decreased by 0.7% compared to the previous month, due to the increase in the labor force (0.6%) and the number of employed persons (1.4%), which was offset by a decrease in the number of unemployed persons (-6.6%).

The number of employed persons increased by 15.2%, with more women (15.6%) than men (14.9%) employed, and the increase was influenced by construction (48.7%), trade (17.7%) and transport (24.8%).

Broken down by occupational groups, the largest increase was seen in the self-employed (37.5%) and dependent employees (8.6%).

The informal employment rate was 26.9%, an increase of 4.6% in 12 months, and the number of informally employed increased by 38.9%, affecting men (39%), women (38.8%) and the self-employed (54.5%).