MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Unemployment in Chile almost back at 2019 levels

Labor Minister Patricio Melero praised “the measures adopted by the government, both in economic and health matters.”

Chilean authorities have reported Monday that unemployment nationwide had fallen in 2021 to 7.2% while in the same period of 2020 it had hit 10.3%. In the middle of the social uprisings of 2019 it had been recorded at 7.1%.

“It is the eighth consecutive annual decrease in the unemployment rate,” said Leonardo González of the National Institute of Statistics (INE), which also reported the unemployment rate for women stood at 7.4%, and for men at 7.1%.

In the quarter of the year, 119,930 jobs were created compared to the previous quarter. With seasonal adjustment, González specified, the number of jobs recovered quarterly reached 49,625.

Around 1,436,000 jobs have been recovered, which represented 77.5% of all jobs lost during the worst part of the COVID-19 pandemic, with 81.8% accounting for jobs held by men and 73.1% for those carried out by women.

The INE also said 80.1% of formal jobs and 94.5% of informal jobs had been recovered.

“If we continue at this rate, we estimate that we will soon be able to recover all the jobs that were lost in the worst moment of the pandemic,” González stressed. He warned, however, that “we have been consistently seeing these rates rise, but we are not yet seeing pre-pandemic levels.”

Employment ended 2021 at 54.3%, while the labor force participation rate ended at 58.5%, an 8.1% yoy increase, driven by women (11.7%) and men (5.7%).

Jobs were boosted by construction (22.2%), commerce (8.5%) and the hotels and restaurants (30.9%).

Economy Minister Lucas Palacios said that during “2021 we met the goal of strongly recovering economic activity and also employment.”

“We have recovered 80% of the jobs that the pandemic and recession destroyed. It was necessary to create health, operational security and certainty conditions to reactivate the economy and especially investment, which is the main source of opportunities,” Palacios said.

Palacios also highlighted joint efforts by the public and private sectors. “Incentives from the State can be very relevant to promote investment and employment,” the minister explained.

Labor Minister Patricio Melero agreed the unemployment figures meant “great news” and praised “the measures adopted by the government, both in economic and health matters,” which were yielding “results which are very positive for the country.”

(Source: ANSA)