Unemployment decreased by 1.1% in February compared to the same month last year, said the governmental statistics agency on Monday.
According to the report by the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE), February saw the employed Colombian population increase by 1.1% (328,000 people) to 10.7%. DANE director Mauricio Perfetti stated that such improvements are due to the “dynamism of the Colombian economy.”
Unemployment since 2012
Unemployment in 2013 reached its lowest rate during October at 7.7%, but slowly increased with the start of 2014, seeing a rise to 11.1%.
Trends between 2001 and 2014 reveal that January each year has seen a spike in unemployment and every February recording a decrease. Between January and February 2013, there was decrease of 0.3% but between February and March a further decrease of 1.6% was recorded.
The unemployment rate for 2013 averaged 11.2% in Colombia’s 13 major cities, with 2,465,000 Colombians registered as unemployed.
The cities with the highest unemployment rates in 2014 are Quibdo, western Colombia reporting 18.2% and Cucuta, northeastern Colombia with 18%.
These positive trends in employment rates across 2013 may be a result of public policies implemented in 2013, such as tax reforms and a plan to boost productivity and employment, known as the PIPE.
The PIPE is the government’s $2.5 million project aimed at stimulating production and employment in Colombia.
Sources
- Desempleo en febrero fue de 10,7 por ciento, según el Dane (El Colombiano)
- Desempleo sigue a la baja. En febrero fue de 10,7 por ciento (Caracol)
- El desempleo se situó en 10,7 % en febrero (Publico)
