The population outside the labor force had a statistically significant increase, which caused a decrease in the employment rate and the participation rate, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC), based on the Survey Continuous Employment to the fourth quarter of the year.
For this period, the employment rate was estimated at 51.7%, a decrease of 2.6 percentage points when compared with the fourth quarter of 2016. The employed population is estimated at around 2 million people, with 1.48 million in the urban area and 514 thousand in the rural area, figures that are maintained when compared with the same period of the previous year.
In relative values, the urban employment rate decreased by 3.2 percentage points compared to the fourth quarter of 2016, while the rural employment rate remained at 50.5% during that period.
The employment rate of the fourth quarter of 2017 for men was 66.3% and 37.0% for women, given the increases in the working-age population, the rates reflect decrease compared to 2016, when they stood at 69.0% and 45.8% respectively.
By age group, those between 15 and 24 years old show the greatest decrease in the number of people employed and in the respective rate when comparing the fourth quarters of 2016 and 2017. The participation rate for this fourth quarter was 57%, while a year earlier the figure was 60.0%.
By area of residence, the labor participation rate in the urban area showed a decrease of 3.6 percentage points, which is statistically significant, and it was estimated at 57.5%, while in the rural area, this rate remains unchanged at 55.8% for this last quarter of the year.
The urban work force is made up of 1.63 million people, while in the rural area it was 568 thousand people.