The National Administrative Department of Statistics, DANE, presented the most recent report on the labor market, which revealed the Global Employment Rate, which refers to the ratio between the economically active population and those considered to be of working age, and the Unemployment Rate and the labor force in Colombia.
Overall, there was a significant recovery at the national level in the labour market, although some departments did not achieve positive results. One of the most notable points of the statistics is that the national unemployment rate fell 2.2 percentage points in 2021, compared to 2020.
Nariño was one of the departments that recorded negative figures, 1.1 percent, while the worst was Norte de Santander, which fell 2.8 percentage points. Even, the latter was together with the Meta, the territories with the highest unemployment figures, 18.1%, Quindio also recorded the worst figures in this regard with 17.5%.
The reported data show that the Meta department has 414,000 workers available, of whom approximately 91,000 are unemployed. The largest number of workers are in trade-related activities and vehicle repair, while the least seen is in jobs such as: “Mining and quarrying; supply of electricity, gas, water and waste management; information and communications; financial and insurance activities; real estate activities” . This same behavior occurs in Norte de Santander, according to DANE.
In addition, Juan Daniel Oviedo, director of DANE, pointed out that in other regions the economy, instead of recovering, worsened:
Particularly in Nariño, although it had negative figures that recorded one of the lowest figures in the unemployment rate, only 7.2 per cent of its working population is out of work. 43.7% of employees work in jobs such as agriculture, livestock, hunting, fishing and forestry.
In terms of the employed population, by department, in 2021, the largest increases occurred in Cesar with 12.2% and Quindio with 11.8%, on the other hand, the reductions in Chocó of 11.3% and 0.5% in Córdoba, are the most outstanding.
Regarding the unemployed population, there were decreases in 20 of the 23 departments monitored and Bogotá. In fact, in the capital of the country there was a reduction of 2.4%; the tasks in which workers perform most are: trade and repair of vehicles, public administration and defense, education and health care. In contrast, construction, housing, food services, agriculture, livestock, hunting, fishing and forestry are the least performed activities.
In the differentiation by sex, the department of Chocó is where the greatest disparity is found, since 69.5% of workers are men, compared to 30.5% who are women. In general, throughout the country, according to DANE statistics, men in all the territories surveyed work more than women. The places where there is most parity is in Bogotá where the gap is 8.8%, Valle del Cauca with 11.3%, Santander with 13.8% and Cundinamarca with 14.8%.
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