MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Unemployment in Chile 8.5% but Magallanes 2.2%

Magallanes in the extreme south of Chile remained during the second quarter as the region with the lowest unemployment according to the latest release from the country's Statistics Institute, INE.

The 2.2% unemployment of April/June represents a drop of 0.6 percentage points compared to the same period a year ago and 0.4 percentage points less than the previous quarter March/May. Magallanes work force numbers 66.400 people. Magallanes record compares favorably with Chile's average national unemployment which reached 8.4% in the second quarter, up 1.5% in the last twelve months and 0.4 percentage points over the previous quarter. Unemployment in Punta Arenas stands at 2.4%, Puerto Natales, 4.7% and Porvenir, 8.3%. The unemployment hike in Porvenir, capital of Tierra del Fuego reflects the closure of the city's main industry, textile Corma Magallánica. At national level and in the last twelve months unemployment in Chile was up because the increase in the workforce (4.6%) was higher than the creation of jobs (2.9%), according to the INE report. In the last twelve months the labor force in Chile rose from 54.5% to 56% and employment from 50.7% to 51.3%. INE attributes this to the fact more women are looking for jobs. Unemployment went up for all categories and ages, but was particularly higher for women and the 15 to 24 year olds. The INE report concludes saying that in the last twelve months unemployment rose in nine regions and went down in two.