Ecuador: Unemployment reached 4% in June, with a slight monthly increase

Unemployment in Ecuador stood at 4% in June, representing a slight increase of 0.3% compared to May (3.7%) but a significant reduction compared to last year when it was 5.1%. It means that at the moment in the country, there are 345,620 unemployed people.

“The unemployment rate at the national level reached 4% compared to 5.1% for the same period last year; that is, it experienced a significant reduction of 1.1 percentage points. When disaggregated by area, the unemployment rate was 5.2% for the urban area, while for the rural area, it was 1.7%″, says the report of the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC) released this Friday.

ADEQUATE EMPLOYMENT GREW

Likewise, the results show a significant year-on-year increase in adequate employment, going from 31.3% in June 2021 to 34% in June 2022. It means that 302,401 became employed, earning at or above the minimum wage (US$425) and working at or above 40 hours per week. This full employment rate is the highest recorded since December 2019, when it reached 38.8%.

UNDEREMPLOYMENT STAGNATES

On the other hand, underemployment and other non-full employment show stable figures over the last year. Thus, underemployment in June stood at 23.6%; a year ago, it was 23.6%, while other non-full employment went from 27.1% to 27.7% between 2021 and 2022.

Underemployment includes people in employment who earn less than the minimum wage and work less than the legal working day, and have the desire and availability to work additional hours. It is the sum of underemployment due to insufficient working time and income.

MORE UNEMPLOYED WOMEN THAN MEN

Regarding gender, the unemployment rate was higher for women than men last June, with 4.5% and 3.7%, respectively. Despite the difference, the figures have improved for women, since a year ago, unemployment for women was 6.7%.

Another noteworthy fact is informality, which continues to be the majority in the country, with 51.6% of people working in the informal sector. The figure has barely dropped 0.4% in one year.

The informal sector is operationally defined as the people working in productive units of less than 100 workers that do not have a Single Taxpayers Registry (RUC).

With information from Bloomberg Línea