The rate for the fourth month of 2020 (the worst for job destruction) was 19.8%. However, we are still far from the prepandemic level: 10.3% in April 2019.
The unemployment rate in Colombia stood at 15.1% in April 2021, an improvement compared to the data seen in the same month of 2020, when the rate reached 19.8%. The April 2019 rate (before the pandemic) was 10.3%.
Juan Daniel Oviedo, director of DANE, recalled that April 2020 was the worst month in terms of job losses due to the pandemic. In the fourth month of 2021, in contrast, 3.9 million people were added to the employed population, for a total of 20.4 million (in April 2020 there were 16.5 million people). However, there is still some way to go to reach the levels of April 2019, when the employed population was 21.8 million people.
The official added that, as well as much of the coup in labor matters occurred in the cities, it is there where more than 50% of the recovery of the employed population is explained.
By sex, of the 3.9 million people who entered the occupation, 2.2 million are men and 1.7 million are women. “We continue to see elements of the gender gaps in terms of reactivation against women,” said Oviedo, as it can be seen that 500,000 fewer women have been called to regain the positions that were lost last year. “This implies that for every four men who got their jobs back, only three women achieved that result.”
Likewise, by sectors, those that were most affected last year due to the confinements are those that have now shown the greatest recovery of the employed population: commerce, construction and manufacturing industries. The 1.4 million people in the occupied population compared to April 2019, added the director of DANE, show that the greatest destruction continues in the construction sectors; arts, entertainment and other services (including domestic work) and health and education.
Regarding the unemployed population, there are a total of 3.6 million people, compared to 4 million in April 2020. However, the figure is still much higher than that seen in April 2019, when there were 2.5 millions of people unemployed.
Of the 456,000 fewer unemployed people, 410,000 are men and only 46,000 are women. In other words, “for every 10 men who came out of unemployment, only one woman could do so,” said Oviedo.
The unemployment rate for men in April 2021 was 12.1% (it was 17.3% in April 2020) and 19.1% for women (23.5% in April 2020).
Regarding the inactive population, it can be said that 2.9 million people left that condition, that is, they became part of the labor force, either because they found work or because they are looking for work. There are a total of 16.1 million people, compared to 19.1 million seen in the fourth month of 2020, but still far from the 14.8 million in April 2019.
Follow the news of El Espectador on Google NewsIt could be interpreted as positive that, of the 1.8 million who came out of inactivity because they were engaged in housework, 1.05 million are women who entered or re-entered the workforce.
By cities, those with the highest unemployment rate in the February-April 2021 quarter were Riohacha (22.7%), Quibdó (21.6%) and Cúcuta (20.9%). In contrast, those with the lowest rate were Barranquilla (11.1%), Cartagena (11.5%) and Pasto (14.1%).
