On paper, Colombia’s newest jobs numbers appear like a small miracle. In October, the official unemployment charge fell to eight.2%, the bottom stage for an October since 2017.
Roughly 2.1 million individuals have been out of labor and 24.3 million had a job, suggesting an economic system that’s nonetheless creating alternatives regardless of international headwinds. For an outsider, these figures say two issues.
First, the nation averted the mass job losses some feared after the pandemic and up to date tax debates. Second, extra Colombians are literally within the sport: round 65% of adults are actually working or searching for work, and almost 60% have already got a job.
Big cities like Bogotá and Medellín submit comparatively low unemployment, nearer to what you’ll anticipate in components of Southern Europe. The story behind the story is much less comforting. More than half of all staff – about 56.1%, or 13.6 million individuals – are in casual jobs.
They promote meals on the road, drive bikes, do home work or rotate between short-term gigs. They pay little or nothing into pensions, typically lack correct well being protection and may be fired in a single day.
Many of the brand new “jobs” that helped convey the unemployment charge down got here from this gray zone, not from corporations placing individuals on formal payrolls. There are huge regional gaps as properly.
Colombia’s Jobs Recovery Masks Deep Structural Gaps
Cities comparable to Quibdó, Sincelejo and Riohacha nonetheless endure double-digit unemployment, whereas locations like Manizales or Bucaramanga are a lot nearer to full employment.
Youth unemployment stays caught round 15%, including strain emigrate or settle for no matter casual work is out there. For governments that like huge applications and new rules, it’s tempting to have a good time the headline quantity and transfer on.
But enterprise house owners quietly spotlight one thing else: excessive non-wage prices, advanced labor guidelines and unpredictable politics make formal hiring dangerous, particularly for smaller companies.
When it’s simpler to pay a employee “off the books” than to navigate paperwork, informality turns into the default enterprise mannequin. For expats, traders and international observers, the lesson is obvious.
Colombia is energetic, younger and busy. But till guidelines and incentives reward formal, long-term hiring, a big share of its progress will stay within the shadows.
