Bolivia: Urban unemployment rate drops to 8.1% in March – INE

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Unemployment has dropped slightly in Santa Cruz and Cochabamba, but increased in La Paz and the remaining departments.

The urban unemployment rate has dropped to 8.1% in March in Bolivia, according to the latest report from the National Statistics Institute (INE).

The figure is 3.5% lower than the rate recorded in July 2020, when the indicator reached 11.6%, the highest level of unemployment recorded in the country last year, after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Urban unemployment stood at 9.7% in January 2021 and dropped to 8.9% in February.

“The results of the first 3 months this year signal a trend towards recovery,” INE said in its report.

In December 2020, the urban unemployment rate stood at 8.2%. That is, the level of unemployment in March reached almost the same percentage as recorded in the last month of last year, after a rise of 1.5%.

By gender, the unemployment rate in March was higher among women (8.4%) than among men (7.8%).

Unemployment among young people between 16 and 28 years of age, on the other hand, dropped from 17% to 13.1% last month, in the case of women, and from 13.9% to 12.4% among men.

Finally, in the first quarter this year, the unemployment rate decreased “in almost all departments,” compared to the third quarter 2020, according to INE.

Santa Cruz registered a 7.4% unemployment rate in the first quarter (down 1.1%) and a 10.5% rate in Cochabamba (down 1.4%).

In La Paz, on the other hand, the rate reached 8.6%, 3.3% higher than in the fourth quarter 2020.

Unemployment also rose in the remaining departments, from 8.8% to 9.4%.

Source: Correo der Sur