At the end of 2021, the national unemployment rate stood at 13.7%, a figure 2.2 points below that registered for 2020, the year of the pandemic. And although there was a significant recovery in the labor market last year, not all regions achieved the same results.
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This Friday the results of the Great Integrated Household Survey (GEIH) for 2021 by region were released, and according to Dane, last year the departments that registered the highest unemployment rates were Norte de Santander (18.1 %), Meta (18.1%) and Quindío (17.5%).
According to the report, in the case of North of Santander there was a reduction of 2.8 percentage points in the unemployment rate in relation to that of 2020, while the employment rate went from 46% of the population in 2020 to 48.9% in 2021. For last year, registered 602,000 employed persons, and 133,000 unemployed.
On the Meta side, unemployment fell 2.1 points last year. The llanero department reported 414,000 workers during 2021, and 91,000 unemployed, while in the case of Quindío, the recovery in employment translated into a reduction of 3.7 points in the unemployment rate.
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Although these departments maintain the highest unemployment rates, these were reduced compared to 2021, but the director of Dane, Juan Daniel Oviedo, highlighted the situation in other regions in which the labor market did not recover but worsened its situation.
“In the department of Chocó, unfortunately, contrary to reducing the unemployment rate between 2020 and 2021, it grew by 20 basis points (2.0 percentage points) and went from 11.6% to 11.8%, and we must highlight that the department of La Guajira also presents a significant setback in terms of unemployment. Its rate had reached 10.4% in 2020 and becomes an unemployment rate of 12.6% in 2021”Oviedo said.
Other departments with high unemployment figures for 2021, above the national average, were the Valle del Cauca (16.9%), Tolima (16.9%), Caquetá (16.4%), Bogotá DC (15.7%), Cesar (14.5%), Cundinamarca (14.1%) and Sucre (13.9%).
On the contrary, among the departments with the lowest records in their unemployment rate for 2021 are Nariño (7.2%), Huila (8.7%) and Atlántico (9.3%).
In the case of Nariño, 2021 was marked by a reduction of 0.9 percentage points in its unemployment indicator, while the employment rate improved from 62.1% in 2020 to 65.1% in 2021. The department in the southeast of the country registered a figure of 816,000 workers, and 63,000 unemployed.
The director of the Dane also indicated that “It is the department of Huila that observes a more significant decrease in its unemployment rate between 2022 and 2021”. In 2020 Huila registered an unemployment rate of 13.9%, while in 2021 it was 8.7%, an adjustment of 5.2 percentage points.
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In the Caribbean, Atlántico appears as the third department with the lowest unemployment rate by region, after a reduction of 1.3 percentage points compared to 2020. The number of unemployed was 123,000 people, while those employed in 2021 were 1, 2 million people. La Guajira is also below the national unemployment rate, despite its increaseRisaralda (12.4%), Caldas (12.2%), Chocó, Santander (11.6%), Magdalena (11%), Cauca (10.7%), Boyacá (10.6%) and Bolívar (9.6%).
It is worth mentioning that among the statistics that Dane measures through its GEIH, when presenting the national information it refers only to 23 departments in which there is data collection and the capital district.
LAURA LUCIA BECERRA ELEJALDE
