MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Fall in unemployment reported in Paraguay

The INE also found that people on a salary outnumbered those self-employed

Paraguay's Labor Ministry confirmed this week a fall in unemployment after nearly 57,000 people found new jobs during this year's third quarter. Between April and June, there were 2,849,766 registered workers and the number went up to 2,906,475 between July and September, the Labor Observatory pointed out. Of the 56,709 new jobs, around 41,000 stemmed from the private sector.

 The main driver of employment in quarter-on-quarter terms was industry, where 36,000 new jobs were created. However, there were decreases in the transportation and construction sectors. All in all, unemployment fell by almost 32,000 people, dropping from 195,948 between April and June 2024 to 164,000 between July and September, according to the National Statistics Institute's (INE) Permanent Household Survey.

Also showing positive figures was the number of workers registered with the Social Security Institute (IPS), which was reported to have grown from 710,973 to 753,777 interannually in September, thus representing a recovery nearing figures from the historically high levels of 10 years ago.

The INE also found that people on a salary outnumbered those self-employed in Paraguay thanks to yoy quarterly increases in the secondary sector (+ 34,288) and the tertiary sector (+ 9,868 employed) while 31,244 fewer self-employed workers were registered, including unpaid family workers, the INE's Continuous Permanent Household Survey (EPHC) 2024 detected.

When divided by sex, 58.3% of Paraguayan women accounted for all the country's registered workers whereas only 41.7% were men.