Colombia | Unemployment rate, employment and labor force continued to decline

In December, the national unemployment rate was 11.0% and the urban unemployment rate was 11.6%, lower by 2.4 and 4.0 percentage points, respectively, than in December 2020, but higher than in December 2019.

Key points

• Key points:
• With seasonally adjusted data for each month, between November and December 2021, the national unemployment rate fell by 0.2 percentage points and the urban unemployment rate by 1.2 percentage points, while employment fell in both cases: by 0.6% at the national level and by 0.2% at the urban level.
• The reduction in the unemployment rate between November and December 2021 is explained by the fact that the number of people who became inactive, i.e. unwilling to work, increased sufficiently to compensate for the reduction in the demand for workers by companies and to reduce the number of unemployed.
• The labor inactive population has been growing considerably for some months now, with an increase of almost 900 thousand people between August and December 2021. With this outflow of people from the labor force, the labor supply, measured by labor participation, decreased considerably between December 2020 and December 2021: by 1.9 percentage points, at the national level, and by 2.3 percentage points at the urban level.
• In December 2021, the lag in the recovery of employment relative to activity continues. In that month, national employment was 94.8% of its pre-pandemic level (February 2020) and urban employment was 93.6%, compared to 95.3% and 93.8%, respectively, in November 2021. On the other hand, activity surpassed its pre-pandemic level as of July and by November it was at 103.7% of its February 2020 level.
• In December 2021, compared to December 2019, retail was the sector that lagged the most, in terms of employment. It was followed by "Artistic activities and others" and the branch comprising public administration, education and health.

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