The National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC) confirmed that in the third quarter of 2018 there was an inter-annual increase of 28 thousand unemployed people, estimating a total of 242 thousand unemployed people, divided in 124 thousand men and 118 thousand women.
The increase was generated mainly in the male population (18 thousand people), which also led to a higher rate of unemployment of men compared to the third quarter of 2017; it went from 7.5% to 8.5% in 2018. Women, on the other hand, have an unemployment rate of 12.7%, without variation compared to the same period of the previous year.
According to INEC, despite the largest number of unemployed people in the country; since the work force also grew; the unemployment rate remains within the confidence interval (without significant year-on-year change), which for the third quarter of 2018 was 10.2%.
The national labor force showed a statistically significant increase in the third quarter of 2018 when compared to the same period of 2017; 98 thousand people; for a total of 2.38 million people.
About 962 thousand people have an informal employment, of which 560 thousand are men and 402 thousand women. The percentage of women in informality increased 4.3 percentage points and the informality rate of dependents increased by two percentage points.
When comparing these figures with the third quarter of 2017, it’s possible to see the percentage of informality in the country increased by 1.8 percentage points, a variation caused mainly by the increase of women in informality and dependent workers.