Colombia | In February, employment was boosted

In February, employment was boosted by the easing of mobility restrictions. By that month, 79% of the employment lost when it had deteriorated the most had been recovered. Its recovery is expected to continue and its pace will depend on economic growth, the progress of the pandemic and the measures to contain it.

Key points

• Key points:
• For the national level, employment improved in February 2021, with an increase of 390 thousand jobs respect to January 2021. This increase is equivalent to almost twice the employment lost between December 2020 and January 2021.
• In February, employment recovered in the cities and sectors that had lost the most jobs in January 2021, when mobility restrictions were in place, suggesting some temporary nature of the job losses of the first month of the year.
• At the national level, the unemployment rate, seasonally adjusted, decreased in February with respect to January. This was not the case at the urban level, where, despite the greater boost in employment, the economy did not manage to fully absorb the increase in the labor force and therefore, part of this increase translated into more unemployed. In February, the national unemployment rate, without seasonal adjustment, was 15.9% and the urban unemployment rate was 18.1%.
• In 2021, employment is expected to increase compared to 2020, with a pace of recovery that will go hand in hand with the recovery of economic activity, the progress of the pandemic and the measures taken to contain it. The unemployment rate will reach, in 2021, lower levels than those observed at the end of 2020 without, however, reaching pre-pandemic levels.

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