Colombia | National unemployment rate remained at low levels in September

September's national unemployment rate was 9.3%, down from 10.7% a year ago. Seasonally adjusted, the rate increased by 0.2 p.p. between August and September 2023, which is explained by the slowdown in the pace of job creation. However, it is the lowest unemployment rate for a September since 2016.

Key points

• Key points:
• The slight increase in the national unemployment rate between August and September is explained by the slowdown in the pace of job creation, which went from close to 5% per year (on average from June to August) to 3.2% per year in September. The slowdown in September is partly explained by the higher base of comparison. At the urban level, annual job creation, at 2.2%, also showed a slowdown compared to August (4.8%), July (6.2%) and June (6.6%).
• In levels, in September, national employment decreased slightly with respect to August, with 23.1 million people employed, but remained high, far exceeding the high levels observed during the January to May 2023 period (22.6 million)-seasonally adjusted figures. At the urban level, employment stood at 10.8 million people, slightly lower than in August (10.9 million), but high compared to the January to May 2023 average (10.6 million) -seasonally adjusted-.
• Services, as a whole, were the major generators of employment in the last year, contributing 743 thousand jobs (104% of the employment created). Individually, the sectors that contributed the most to annual employment generation were public administration and defense, education and health (+236 thousand jobs created) and transportation (+232 thousand jobs). Agriculture (- 98 thousand jobs) destroyed employment during the year.
• By category, annual employment created in September was salaried, and nearly half of the employment was created in small cities. Salaried employment grew at 6.9% annually, driven mainly by government employment which grew 16.5% annually, and employment in private companies at 6.1%.

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