Colombia | Strong employment growth interrupted by a decline in March

DANE changed methodology and sample base to calculate labor market figures. The new figures show employment growing until February 2022, from the end of 2021. In March, employment decreased. The March unemployment rate was 12.1% nationwide, 2.6 p.p. lower than in the same month a year ago.

Key points

• Key points:
• In the publication of the March labor market data, DANE released the new series of employment, unemployment, population outside the labor force, from January 2001 to March 2022, both at the national level and for the thirteen main cities, monthly and seasonally adjusted.
• The new figures, seasonally adjusted, show dynamic employment, which grew, every month, from November 2021 to February 2022, with a slight decline in March 2022.
• The dynamism of the labor market since the end of 2021 was observed in the monthly reduction of the population outside the labor force (inactive population), from November 2021 to March 2022.
• In March of this year, the national unemployment rate was 12.1% and the urban unemployment rate was 12.6%. This is 2.6 percentage points lower than in the same month a year ago, at the national level, and 4.0 percentage points lower at the urban level. In seasonally adjusted terms, comparing February 2022 with March 2022, the unemployment rate remained relatively stable at both the national and urban levels.
• Going forward, we expect employment to continue to be driven by the increased dynamism of the service economy, which is highly labor-intensive and shows high levels of economic activity. In addition, the full opening of schools and other childcare and eldercare services will continue to allow for an increase in labor participation.

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