Colombia | Strong national employment growth continues in May

In May 2022, the national unemployment rate was 10.6%. In seasonally adjusted terms, compared to April 2022, the national unemployment rate decreased 0.7 percentage points. National employment grew strongly in May 2022, reinforcing its upward trend that began since the end of last year.

Key points

• Key points:
• National employment continues to show dynamism, growing between October 2021 and May 2022 consecutively every month, only with the exception of March when it declined slightly. Between April and May 2022, in particular, the number of employed increased by 460 thousand (2.1% monthly) at the national level, reinforcing its upward trend which started since the end of last year, while urban employment decreased by 57 thousand jobs, interrupting its upward path.
• In May 2022, employment represented 100.2% of its pre-pandemic level, at the national level and 97.2% at the urban level, levels still lagging behind economic activity, as measured by the economy tracking index -ISE-, which by April had reached 109.1% of its Feb. 2020 level.
• The dynamism of the labor market, since the end of 2021, was reflected in a reduction of the population outside the labor force (inactive population) of 1.1 million in 7 months, between October 2021 and May 2022, similar to the reduction observed between April 2020 and October 2021 which was 1.3 million.
• When characterizing people outside the labor force, we observe that they are primarily women (69% of the total population outside the labor force), women engaged in household occupations (49%), women 25 years of age or older (51%) and women in the thirteen main cities (30%).
• At the end of the year, we expect a lower unemployment rate, with labor force and employment growing. The latter, driven by further growth in the service economy, which is highly labor intensive. In addition, the full opening of schools and other childcare and eldercare services will also continue to allow for an increase in labor participation.

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