Colombia | Unemployment rate stable in October, with national job losses

In October, the national unemployment rate was 11.8% and the urban unemployment rate was 12.3%, lower by 2.9 and 4.4 percentage points, respectively, than in October of last year. As expected, these rates are still higher, by about 2 percentage points, than those observed in the same month of 2019.

Key points

• Key points:
• With seasonally adjusted data, between September and October 2021, the national unemployment rate remained relatively stable and the urban unemployment rate decreased by 0,4 percentage points.
• In October, with seasonally adjusted data, employment decreased 0.7% with respect to September at the national level, after increases in the last 3 months, while at the urban level it gained traction, with a monthly growth of 0.8%.
• The lag in the recovery of employment with respect to activity continues. As of October, national employment stood at 96.2% of its pre-pandemic level (February 2020) and urban employment at 96.1% while activity surpassed its pre-pandemic level as of July and in September stands at 103.6% of its February 2020 level.
• The recovery of women's employment has been even slower, standing, in October 2021, 5.2% below its pre-pandemic level while that of men is 2.1% below.
• In October 2021, non-wage earners reached its October 2019 level (pre-pandemic level). Wage earners did not. Between October 2019 and October 2021, the share of non-wage earners in total employment rose from 56.6% to 57.9%, respectively. More recently, between September and October 2021, it increased by 0.4 percentage points.

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