Unemployment decreased by 19.5% in Lima in 2021, according to INEI survey

Unemployment levels for Lima in 2021 were lower than those recorded in 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 in Peru. The employed population in the first quarter of this year was 4.9 million people, 19.5% higher than that recorded during the same period in 2020 .

This figure, however, is only 1.9% higher than in 2019. In addition, unemployment affected 9.4% of the population, which translates into 511,300 people.

It was also concluded that the unemployment rate between January and March 2022 fell by 5.9%, compared to that indicated in the same quarter of 2021. But this represented an increase of 1.6% compared to the similar period in 2020.

The information was published in the latest report of the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (INEI) on the behavior of labor market indicators in Metropolitan Lima.

REPORT DETAILS

The report noted that 511,300 people actively sought work in the capital during those first months of the year. During that time, the unemployment rate (9.4%) was less than 15.3% in 2021, but higher than 7.8% in 2020 and 2019 (8.2%).

As for the percentage of people with adequate employment in Lima, this increased by 36.2% to 722,500 people, while the underemployed population also increased by 3.8% to 81,600 people in 2022.

However, if these figures are compared with the first quarter of 2019 and 2020, the rate of adequate employment fell by 11.1% and 7.5%, respectively. The rate of underemployment grew 24.4% and 16.8%, respectively.

AGES AND EDUCATION OF THE EMPLOYED POPULATION

Regarding the percentage of the employed population, the report revealed that in recent years the number of workers under 25 years of age increased by 31.1%, followed by those over 45 years old by 27.5% and those aged 25 to 44 by 11.3%.

Similarly, the employed population with primary education increased by 36 per cent. Among those with a job, the female employed population increased by 23.4% and the male population by 16.6%.

On the other hand, with regard to the main productive sectors that drove the increase in the employed population were: services by 23.7 per cent, manufacturing by 22.6 per cent, construction by 15 per cent and trade by 13.2 per cent.

In addition, the average monthly income of the people of Lima stood at S/1,646.6 soles ($440), 11.8% more than the amount recorded in the same quarter last year. However, this figure is still below the amount recorded in 2020 (-1.6%) and 2019 (-4.8%).

LEVEL OF UNEMPLOYMENT REACHED ITS CRITICAL POINT WITH THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The COVID-19 pandemic was not only a critical period for public health and education in the country, but it also posed a problem for formal employment. Unemployment rose to 16.3% in Peru in the quarter from April to June 2020, a record that coincided with the quarantine due to the pandemic.

“The EAP (economically active population) decreased by 49.8% and the unemployment rate rose from 6.3 to 16.3%,” the Central Bank said in a report that year.

In the third quarter of 2021, the employed population in Peru reached 16.9% more than reported in 2020, but unemployment affected 5.3% of the Economically Active Population (EAP), that is, 941,200 people.

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