Migrants in Chile: Unemployment is lower than national average, work is mainly in services

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Friday (10) the Chile Migrant Employment Bulletin was released for the first time by the National Migration Service (SNM), in conjunction with the National Statistics Institute (INE), which reveals the employment situation of people of foreign origin in the country, showing a growth of 18.7% in the last twelve months.

The document, corresponding to the August-October 2021 quarter, estimated the unemployment rate of people of foreign origin at 7.1%, registering a decrease of 6.3 percentage points in twelve months as a result of the increase in the labor force (10.7%), lower than that presented by the employed (18.7%).

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Thus, the unemployment rate for migrants is lower than the national total, which stood at 8.1% in the August-October quarter, a fall of 3.5 percentage points in twelve months.

The unemployed decreased by 41.2%, affected only by the unemployed (-43.8%). By sex, the unemployment rate for women stood at 8.4%, and for men at 6.1%.

In twelve months, the estimated total number of employed grew by 18.7%, affected by both men (17.8%) and women (19.7%). By economic sector, the expansion of employed persons was influenced by accommodation and food service (43.9%), household activities as employers (24.6%), and commerce (12.5%).

The increase was observed in self-employed workers (65.4%). The informal employment rate reached 28.9%, growing 6.4 pp. in twelve months. Likewise, the number of informally employed increased by 52.4% (corresponding to 280,963 people), affected by both men (59.3%) and women (45.8%).

The director of the SNM, Álvaro Bellolio, explained that 8% of Chile’s population is foreign and represents 11% of the labor force: “Migrant groups are the first to receive the effects of cyclical employment trends: the first to become unemployed and the first to recover, in conditions of informality, in many cases.”

Bellolio warned that “there is a significant percentage of informality that is worrying and that is often fed by signals given by certain authorities that encourage people to come to Chile without having the conditions to work in the formal market.”

For her part, the director of INE, Sandra Quijada, emphasized that “this bulletin is the result of the collaborative work between the SNM and INE, whose objective is to deepen the analysis of the foreign population and its link with the labor market.”

Bellolio raised an additional topic to be known in future reports: remittances. “Today, the migration factor is important in the labor market. But there is much to be done. For example, there is very little knowledge on remittances from these working migrants. If the money stays here or if the money is sent to their country of origin.”

With information from Diaro Financiero