Colombia | Effects of Covid-19 on September employment

Summary

The pace of employment growth in September was slower than in August, month that saw the greatest dynamism in employment since the beginning of the recovery in times of pandemic. In September, the unemployment rate continued to fall, but remains high. Informality increased and so did the gender gap.

Key points

• Key points:
• As of September, 62% of the 6.1 million jobs lost between February and April had been recovered and 71% of the 4.8 million people who had become inactive between February and April had returned to the workforce.
• The increase in the number of employed, coupled with the reduction in the number of unemployed, translated into a national unemployment rate that was 0.7 percentage points (p.p.) lower in September than in August. At the urban level, the reduction was 0.8 percentage point. The national unemployment rate stood at 16.3% in September and the urban rate at 19.4%.
• The informality rate stood at 47.1% in the July-September quarter and the September rate was 47.6%, reflecting the growing dynamics of informality.
• The impact of the pandemic has been unequal between men and women, widening gender gaps. Between September 2019 and September 2020, for every man who lost his job, 2.2 women did so, nationally. In the smaller cities, for every 8 women who lost their jobs, one man lost his job.
• From now on, job creation will depend much more on their recovery processes than on the opening of new sectors and therefore the pace of job creation is likely to slow down. In addition, it is possible that the quality of employment will continue to deteriorate, as we believe that informal employment will continue to grow at a faster rate than formal employment.

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