Colombia’s unemployment rate decreased 0.6% in May to the lowest rate seen in 14 years, according to figures from Colombia’s national statistics agency.
In May, Colombia’s unemployment rate was 8.8%, which is a decrease of 0.6% compared to 9.4% in the same month in 2013.
With 21.4 million people employed in May, Colombia saw a job creation increase of 156,000 compared to 2013, according to figures from Colombia’s national statistics agency DANE. This is the lowest unemployment rate the country has seen since 2000.
From June of last year through May this year, the unemployment rate fell from 10.2% to 9.3% compared to the year before, the DANE figures show.
Last month the DANE reported the lowest unemployment rate for April, but with the new figures for May and a rate of 8.8%, the unemployment in Colombia keeps dropping.
MORE: Colombia’s April unemployment drops to 9%, ‘lowest in 14 years’
Between March and May 2014, the number of private employees grew 4.9% while self-employed workers grew 1.8% compared to the same period in 2013, according to the DANE figures. At the same time the number of employees in government jobs saw a decrease of 3.7% from 2013 and the number of people employed as day labors fell as much as 7.5%.
Unemployment fell in 18 of the 23 major Colombian cities. The three cities with the highest unemployment rate were Cucuta (15.8%), Armenia (15.7%), and Pereira (14.5%), the figures showed.
The areas that saw the greatest decrease in employment rate compared to 2013 were in construction (11.9%), other branches (7.3%) which include work in the fields of mining, electricity, gas, and water, and the communal, personal, and social service industry (5.2%).
MORE: Colombia has by far highest unemployment rate in Latin America
The employment rate in Colombia has gradually dropped since 2011, where it was the highest unemployment rate in Latin America at the time.
Sources
- Mercado Laboral Mayo de 2014 (DANE)
