Santiago de Chile, March 28 (EFECOM).- Unemployment in Chile marked the sixteenth consecutive annual increase and stood at 8.5% in the December 2023-February 2024 quarter, which meant an increase of 0.1 points in 12 months, the National Institute of Statistics (INE) reported this Thursday.
According to the organization, the figure is due to the fact that the “increase in the labor force (3.2%) was greater than that of employed people (3.1%)”, while “unemployed people increased 4.9%, affected by those who were unemployed (4.5%) and those looking for work for the first time (8.5%)”.
“Compared to the same period of the previous year, the participation and employment rates stood at 62.3% and 57% (…) On the other hand, the population outside the labor force decreased by 2.7% “, detailed the institution.
Employment in Chile has been impacted by the adjustment in the economy after the rapid recovery after the pandemic, as a result of enormous state aid and withdrawals of pension savings, which in turn triggered inflation.
Chile recovered faster than expected after the pandemic, with a historic GDP increase of 11.7% in 2021, but in 2022 it began to slow down and closed with a growth of 2.4%.
With inflation contained at around 5%, Chile’s great challenge for this year is to increase its growth because, although it avoided recession in 2023, it closed with an increase of 0.2% in its economic activity. EFECOM
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