According to the results of the latest National Employment Survey prepared by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) corresponding to the moving quarter December 2023 and February 2024, unemployment in our region reached 6.5%, which means a decrease of 0.4 percentage points in the last twelve months and the third consecutive decrease. This figure places O’Higgins below the national rate which reached 8.5%.
In addition, the employment figure grew, reaching 462,220 people with a rate of 55.6%, which means that, compared to the previous year, more than 35 thousand workers have found a new job.
In this regard, the Seremi of Labor and Social Security, Jaime Chamorro, highlighted the results of this survey, since “they show a sustained and gradual recovery of the economy in the region, given that employment continues to increase and the labor market “It is being able to respond and open new work options.” Although seasonality characterizes the activity in O’Higgins, the areas that most influenced this increase were Commerce, Manufacturing Industry and Education, the authority said, but Agriculture counteracted this variation with a drop of 12.5%.
The Seremi also highlighted the growth of regional female employment, which reached 14.4%, while for men this was 1.9%. “One of our main concerns is to eliminate gender gaps, to this end we have encouraged their insertion into the labor market, which is why we look with optimism at the results that the INE gives us, with the decrease in female unemployment by 1.1% and the increase in its participation, which stood at 49.1%,” he said.
LABOR INFORMALITY
Although the informal employment rate remained at 27.2%, the number of informal people grew by 8.3% in twelve months, reaching 125,857 people. Regarding these figures, Jaime Chamorro, assured that as the Ministry of Labor they are working on different strategies to promote the transition from informality to formality, “especially in the case of women who are often the most affected by precariousness, for this we promote the increase in the minimum wage to $500 thousand pesos and we are making progress in the restructuring of the employment subsidies in order to support companies in formal hiring.”
To this he added that labor capacities must be strengthened in the different productive sectors of the region, and that is why together with Sence and Chile Valora want to reach all communities with an updated program offer integrated with local needs, “allowing them to access new and better jobs, with rights, benefits and social security,” concluded the Ministerial Regional Secretary.
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