Colombia | March unemployment rate was 10%, the lowest for March since 2018

Summary

In March the national unemployment rate was 10.0%, 2.1 percentage points lower than in the same month of 2022. Seasonally adjusted, the unemployment rate in March was 10.0%, down from 10.3% in February and below the 11.0% level around which it had stabilised between May 2022 and January 2023.

Key points

• Key points:
• The slowdown in annual job creation observed since May 2022 was interrupted in March, mainly due to the high level of employment observed in the month. Employment went from growing by 2.5% (552 thousand jobs) between February 2022 and February 2023 to growing by 5.1% (1.1 million jobs) between March 2022 and March 2023.
• By type of employment, in March, the biggest contributors to annual job creation were non-wage earners (630,000 of the 1.1 million jobs created), those employed in urban areas (514,000) and those aged 25-54 (670,000). In the case of non-wage earners, it is possible that their high share in annual job creation was due, in part, to the increased public hiring that took place during the last months, of February and March, after the fall in January.
• Sectorally, in March, the main contributors to annual job creation were professional activities (263,000), accommodation and food services (199,000) and public administration, health and education (185,000).

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