Colombia | In March 2024, the labor market continues to show deterioration

In March, the national unemployment rate was 11.3%, up from 10.0% a year ago. Seasonally adjusted, the national unemployment rate continued its upward trend in March. Employment fell by 0.7% year-over-year, so that job creation continued its downward trend.

Key points

• Key points:
• Annual job creation went from 1.2% in February to -0.7% in March. This deceleration in annual job creation between February and March of this year was largely explained by the significant increase in employment that occurred last year between February and March, the base year for comparison for the calculation of annual growth.
• In the last year, as of March, 149 thousand jobs were lost. The sectors that contributed most to the drop in employment were Agriculture (207 thousand jobs lost) and Hotels and Restaurants (99 thousand jobs lost). The main generators of employment during the year were Public Services (132 thousand jobs created) and Retail (120 thousand jobs created).
• By category, the annual employment created as of March was mainly in private companies, which created 235 thousand jobs (growing at 2.4% annually). Regionally, large cities created 166 thousand jobs (growing at 1.5% annually) and small cities destroyed 273 thousand jobs (falling at 4.5% annually), as well as the countryside, which destroyed 58 thousand jobs (falling at 1.2% annually).

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