MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chile: Slight increase in unemployment reported

The increase in the labor force was greater than the increase in the number of employed people, Chile's INE found

Chile's National Statistics Institute (INE) released a report Thursday showing that unemployment in the mobile quarter from December 2023 to February 2024 reached 8.5%, an annual increase of 0.1%. In the Santiago Metropolitan Region (RM), it reached 9.3%, which represented a decrease of 0.4% in twelve months.

These figures were recorded despite a 3.1% growth in the number of people employed, particularly in commerce (8.3%) and hotels and food services (5.1%) because the labor force showed a 3.2% upward adjustment. In this scenario, the number of unemployed people grew by 4.9%, with those actively searching for a first job amounting to 8.5%. On the other hand, the number of those outside the labor force decreased by 2.7%.

In the case of women, the unemployment rate was 9.0%, with zero change over twelve months, thanks to an equal increase in the labor force and employed women (4.2%). The level of unemployed women expanded by 4.3%. In addition, women outside the labor force fell by 2.5%.

Regarding men, the unemployment rate rose by 0.2% over twelve months, reaching 8.1% due to a 2.5% increase in the labor force. Men also accounted for 72.3% of the employed people while the number of them out of the labor force fell by 3.0%.

The average number of hours worked decreased by 1.0% to 36.6 hours, with an average of 39.1 hours for men and 32.6 hours for women.

The INE also pointed out that labor informality reached 27.4% between December and February, also a 0.1% increase from previous figures.

The sectors of the economy that contributed most to job creation included commerce, health, and education, the INE also noted, while contractions were registered in real estate (-11.8%); construction (-3.1%), and finances and insurance (-2.8%).

Chile's labor force -the people willing and able to work- comprised 10.1 million people while the unemployed totaled 865,300, the INE's survey also showed.