Although summer is a period in which unemployment rates usually decrease in the region, this time it did not happen, since according to the INE, the unemployment rate reached 8.7% in the November-January quarter. recording an interannual increase of 0.4 points, as well as an increase of 0.5 points compared to the previous quarter (October-December).
In this way, regional unemployment completed its eighth consecutive moving quarter with increases in its annual variation.
The unemployment rate for women in the region reached 8.8%, decreasing by 1.1 percentage points in twelve months; while, unemployment for men stood at 8.7%, registering an increase of 1.6 points in 12 months.
Along these lines, the unemployed in the region totaled 21,158, which represents an increase of 6.2% compared to November-January 2022, and likewise, an increase of 8.5% compared to October-December 2023.
With this data, Ñuble was ranked as the seventh region with the highest unemployment in the country, and above the national average of 8.4%, which also showed an increase of 0.4 points in 12 months.
In the Province of Diguillín, unemployment reached 8.5%, recording a decrease of 0.3 points in 12 months.
In twelve months, the estimate of the total number of employed people in the region increased 0.1% (310 people), from 220,650 in September-November 2022, to 220,960, influenced by women (2.4%). Meanwhile, men decreased 1.4%.
According to the INE, the behavior of the employed was mainly explained by the increases in the health (42.4%), construction (19.3%) and commerce (1.7%) sectors. On the other hand, agriculture, with a decrease of 15.0%, represented the main decrease in regional employment.
Meanwhile, the informal employment rate stood at 35.4%, registering a decrease of 1.7 points in twelve months.
Factors
In the opinion of Bernardo Vásquez, an academic at the Faculty of Business Sciences of the University of Bío-Bío, “although it might be expected that in the summer months the unemployment rate would decrease, due to the historical characteristics of the region associated with the activity agricultural, and therefore, hoping that at this time greater fruit activity would contribute more to regional employment; This situation has not occurred in the last moving quarters, since, when analyzing the number of people employed in the Agriculture, livestock, forestry and fishing sector, they present eight consecutive moving quarters with a drop in their annual variation, marking a decrease in the number of employed people of 15% in the rolling quarter November 2023 – January 2024.”
In this regard, Vásquez stated that, “this situation might have different explanations, such as the greater difficulty indicated by the sector in finding workers, the transfer to less labor-intensive and more capital-intensive crops, among others.”
On the other hand, the academic pointed out that the INE employment bulletin “highlights the increase in the number of people employed in the Construction sector, with an annual variation of 17%, which is encouraging, if we take into account that the “The sector has had 21 consecutive moving quarters with an annual increase in the number of employed people.”
Finally, Vásquez also highlighted “the increase in the number of formally employed people and the fall in the number of informally employed people.”
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