MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Unemployment in Uruguay falls bellow 10% in March

Data for March this year is even better than the pre-pandemic figures of March 2020.

Uruguay's labour market showed some recovery Thursday as unemployment in March fell to 9.7% from February's 11.1%, according to a report released by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

Data for March this year is even better than the pre-pandemic figures of March 2020 when unemployment was 10.1% as per INE's assessment.

Economist Aldo Lema explained in his Twitter account that in the year-on-year there were 67,000 fewer people jobless, partly due to a low comparison base, but the seasonally adjusted figures also showed a strong recovery during the first quarter versus the end of 2020.

Meanwhile, the activity rate stood at 60.8% of the working-age population in April and fell by almost one point compared to the previous month. Meanwhile, the employment rate of the Uruguayan economy stood at 54.9% of the working-age population, from 53.1% a year ago, when the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic were not yet evident.

Among those within the active age range who nevertheless did not look for a job (some 71,000 people), 23.8% claimed it was to pursue their studies, 17.6% blamed the pandemic for it while 17.2% tried to find a job but could not.

Nevertheless, these figures show an improvement in the economy compared to February 2021 when 20.4% of working Uruguayans were unable to find a job, although only 10.8% of them claimed to be jobless due to the pandemic, according to the INE.

Meanwhile, 14.8% of those employed worked from their homes, which represents 3.8 percentage points higher than the previous month. In addition, it was the highest percentage since May of last year (16.7%).