President Juan Manuel Santos said that Colombia is a “step away” from single-digit unemployment rates in a speech to Barranquilla prisoners.
During a public ceremony held in the prison “El Bosque,” located in the northern city of Barranquilla, Santos explained that decreasing unemployment figures show that the labor participation rate is the highest level in history the country.
According to the country’s statistics department, DANE, unemployment has fallen from 11.6% in June 2010 to 10.9% in June of 2011.
“That means that since August 2010, unemployment has been falling consistently month after month, down stairs, one step, two steps, three steps, and we are in the last step, from 11 to 10, reach the goal we set in four years and will soon meet this year, which is to have single-digit unemployment,” the president explained.
Santos added that the percentage of people employed out of the total working population was 56%, which is the highest in history according to the head of state.
“We will have 20 million Colombians employed and these figures we were just given tell us that there are more than 100,000 fewer unemployed Colombians. We are on the right track, this is great news for the country,” said Santos.
The president promised that the government will do everything possible to maintain this trend and achieve the proposed goal of bringing unemployment to single digits.
“And rather than perform it in four years, we will accomplished in a year or year and a half. And keep working to keep unemployment lower and lower,” he explained.