OECD notes that Colombia was the second country with the highest unemployment

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) published unemployment figures for all its member countries. Statistics, in general, show a decrease that approaches the employment conditions registered before the covid-19 pandemic began. It even reached 5.2%, this being the first time that pre-lockdown levels were recorded; in addition, the results show a decrease in this concept for the eighth consecutive month.

Unfortunately, however, not all countries managed to lower unemployment rates to single digits; Spain recorded an unemployment rate of 13 per cent, Colombia 12.6 per cent and Greece achieved 12.7 per cent. Although the European countries reported recorded reductions in their numbers, in Colombia employment unemployment increased by three tenths. For example, for February 2020 the country recorded 11.3% while, for the same month in 2021, it reported 12.6%, which means an increase of 1.3%.

Other countries that recorded increases were Mexico with 3.7 per cent, Czech Republic with 2.4% and the United States with 0.4%. This means that Colombia was the third country with the highest unemployment figure last February, out of 38 member nations of the organization. In fact, the Banco de la República projects that figures for 2022 will remain in a range between 10% and 13%.

In more concrete figures, according to the OECD, Colombia has almost 3 million unemployed. It is exceeded, for example, by the United States, which is estimated to have about 6 million unemployed. This scenario would put our country in a picture that would not demonstrate a recovery in this regard. Comparing the figures of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development with those submitted by the Department of National Statistics, DANE, on unemployment in the country in the same month of February; although there was a reduction of 2.6 per cent, it still followed a rate of 12.9 per cent, which would show a great similarity as opposed to what was submitted by both agencies.

By February of this year, DANE highlighted that 1,519,000 people have entered the labor market, which means that Colombia has more than 20 million employees. A reduction of almost 500,000, which would leave some 3.2 million people unemployed by that month. The “reactivation” of various sectors is what has allowed the economy to recover, bringing more job opportunities; some of these are: manufacturing, commerce, hotels, restaurants, electricity services, gas, water. Also, the fact that there has been an increase in the hours that Colombians spend working, which is about 42 hours a week, is what has allowed this improvement.

In fact, the OECD had emphasized that Colombia is the country where people work the longest. According to figures from this agency, national workers work on average 48 hours a week, these figures, in contrast to those obtained in 2020, would place the country as the nation where the most work is done in Latin America.

They added that the average age of people employed in Colombia is between 25 and 54 years. They also pointed out that women are the most unemployed and that young people between the ages of 15 and 24 are the population with the highest level of unemployment.

For this organization, the activities that they employ mostly in Colombia are: agriculture, construction, the industrial sector, manufacturing and the service sector.

KEEP READING: