Colombia’s unemployment is down to single digits.
In July, Colombia’s unemployment was 9.6%, a 1.4 percentage point decrease from 11% last year, says the National Administrative Department of Statistics DANE.
They also reported a global participation rate increase of 1.3 percentage points to 64.8% from 2022’s 63.5%.
The employment rate rose by 2.1 percentage points to 58.6% from 56.5% in 2022.
DANE disclosed a 5.1% increase in the employed population in July 2023, amounting to 23.2 million people, 1.1 million more than in July 2022.
Thirteen cities and metropolitan areas contributed 2.9 percentage points to this national variation, indicating an employed population of 11 million, which is 639,000 more than in July 2022 (10.3 million).
Moreover, the data showed an increase of 674,000 employed women and 453,000 employed men.
Notably, the most significant national increases were among women (310,000) and men (287,000) aged 25 to 54.
Construction witnessed the highest employment increase in July 2023 (+234,000) compared to July 2022, contributing 1.1 percentage points to the national variation and totaling 1.7 million employed.
This sector was followed by artistic activities, entertainment, recreation, and other services, which rose by 218,000 people, contributing 1.0 percentage points to the national variation and amounting to 2 million employed.
Conversely, the information and communications sector experienced a decrease of 60,000 employed individuals in July, contributing -0.3 percentage points to the national variation.