The number of people employed in Colombia rose to 19.535 million in March from 18.749 million in March 2010, representing a 4.5% increase., according to a report by the National Statistics Agency (DANE) published Friday.
The report also shows that there has been a 5.2% reduction in the number of people who are unemployed from 2.511 million to 2.381 million and a 1.3% decrease in the number of people who are economically inactive from 13.3 million to 13.128 million.
However there was an increase of 4.4% in the number of people who are subjectively underemployed, meaning they are in poor quality jobs, from 6.528 million to 6.817 million. These people are defined as wanting to increase their earnings or the number of hours worked or obtain a job more closely related to their abilities.
There was also an increase in the number of people who are objectively underemployed these being people who want to improve the level of their job and have looked but have been unable to do so. In these figures there was a percentage increase of 1.2% from 2.638 million to 2.67 million.