The number of job vacancies in the municipality of Chillán registered a 60% drop last May, compared to the same month in 2023. According to statistics from the Municipal Labor Intermediation Office (OMIL), dependent on the Didepro of the Municipality of Chillán, in May of this year the vacancies totaled 73, a figure very far from the 182 that were created in May 2023.
The sectors that registered the largest year-on-year declines in May were: industry, which went from 17 vacancies in May 2023 to just one in May 2024; commerce, which dropped from 10 to 1; transportation, which decreased from six to zero; services, from 98 to 28; gastronomy, from 5 to 1; and teaching, from 30 to 7. Meanwhile, construction registered an increase from 14 vacancies in May 2023 to 35 positions in May 2024.
In cumulative terms, 1,043 vacancies have been generated between January and May of this year, which represents a drop of 29.1% compared to the same period in 2023, when 1,472 jobs were created.
In the analysis by sector, tourism stands out, with 414 vacancies, recording a decrease of 18.1%; commerce added 47 vacancies, which represented a decrease of 48.9%; industry totaled 39 positions, that is, it fell by 50.6%; similarly, the services sector accumulated 206 vacancies, which meant a drop of 52.2%; and in construction, which added 72 vacancies between January and May, a contraction of 69.0% was observed compared to the same period in 2023.
On the other hand, the sectors that showed an increase were: gastronomy, with 125 vacancies, that is, an increase of 380.7%; and transportation, with 50 vacancies and an increase of 8.7%.
Less dynamism
Renato Segura, director of Didepro, explained that “the labour market has lost dynamism, at least during the first five months of the year. There was, in a way, a summer of San Juan, but that faded over time, because in the case of March there was a noticeable upturn in terms of the number of vacancies, but then once more it was noticeable that it returned to a trend of less dynamism than last year, which is not a good sign for what remains of the season.”
The professional paid special attention to sectors such as services and construction, which have seen a significant slowdown. “The problem we have is that the services and construction sectors are not generating more job offers and, therefore, this means that the labor market has less capacity to generate more jobs,” he analyzed.
Likewise, he warned that “trade is stagnant; although it is one of the three economic activities that maintains the greatest number of jobs in the commune, there has not been enough job vacancies generated.” He reflected that, “the labor market has a significant lag, which has not recovered completely; we have a high unemployment rate (in the Province of Diguillín it reached 10.2% in February-April), therefore, commerce today is not a factor that is influencing the improvement of these figures and that has a lot to do with the stagnation of the economy, commerce has been an area that has had higher levels of problems in these two years, due to the lower liquidity of households.”
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