A jump of 3.5 points in 12 months showed the unemployment rate in the Province of Diguillín in the December-February quarter, which reached 10.0%. Likewise, the average for the Ñuble region grew 2.7 points in 12 months, reaching 9.1%, according to the INE Employment Survey.
Unemployed people increased 46.7% in the region compared to the same period last year, reaching 22,067.
Although the employed increased by 0.7% in 12 months, that figure pales in comparison with the 3.6% increase in the labor force, that is, 8,500 people who joined the labor market in one year.
In the analysis by sector, those that recorded the highest growth in employed persons in 12 months were construction (7.8%) and education (7.4%). On the other hand, trade registered a fall of 7.2%.
Informality
The informally employed reached 78,876, with which the informal employment rate stood at 35.7%, which represents an increase of 1.1 points in 12 months, influenced by women, who recorded an increase of 4.1 points to reach 38.4%, while the rate in men fell 0.8 points to 33.9%.
Carlos Inostroza, a qualitative analyst at the Ñuble del Sence Labor Observatory and FACE-UBB, maintained that “a sustained increase in unemployment, in the long term, could negatively affect the regional economy and people’s quality of life, since reduces the ability of people to buy goods and services, thus reducing the demand for labor by companies and causing even more unemployment in the region.
Bernardo Vásquez, director of the Labor Observatory, warned that “labour informality can generate problems such as: lack of job security, reduced income and job benefits, lack of social protection and a weakening of the formal sector of the economy, since it generates unfair competition for companies”.
More interest in working
The Economy Seremi, Erick Solo de Zaldívar, explained that “although unemployment increased, this is partly due to the fact that the labor force continues to grow, which means that there are more people who are interested in returning to the labor market; as a Government we are working so that the economy continues to have the capacity to absorb it”.
He added that “as the economy recovers, opportunities will appear. We have to follow the path of promoting employment and public-private investment, since this immediately generates new employment opportunities”.
