Labor informality remains higher than before the pandemic

Labor informality remains higher than before the pandemic

Although the labor market has been recovering due to the reactivation of the economy in the current pandemic, the number of those who work informally is greater now than before COVID-19 and exceeds the formal ones, according to official figures.

The most recent results of the National Continuing Survey of the Force of Worked which was released this week central bank indicate that for the first quarter of this 2022, by branch of economic activity, there were 2,136,626 employed persons aged 15 and over in the formal sector, but in the informal sector there were 2,287,714, for a difference of 151,088 employed persons.

For the first quarter of pre-pandemic 2019, the number of employed in the formal sector by branch of activity was higher than the informal: 2,242,559 against 2,145,280.

If the informal employed outside the informal sector are added, as of the first quarter of this 2022 the total informality was 2,694,679, as opposed to 2,582,160 in the same quarter of 2019.

Sectors with more informality

If compared by branch of economic activity in the first quarters of 2022 and 2019, informality increased in the industrial lines; building; trade; hotels, bars and restaurants; transport and comunication; health and social assistance and other unspecified services.

Meanwhile, according to the data reported by the central bank, the population employed in the formal sector increased in the electricity and water, public administration and defense, and health and social assistance sectors, but decreased in agriculture and livestock; industries; building; trade; hotels bars and restaurants; transport and comunication; financial intermediation and insurance; teaching and other unspecified services.

The central bank reported the day before yesterday that the open unemployment rate or the percentage of unemployed who are actively looking for worked it stood at 6.4% in January-March 2022, for a reduction of 1.6 percentage points with respect to the level of 8.0% registered in the same period of the previous year.

“This is positive news, since the unemployment rate is falling within the framework of a significant resumption of active job search work by people, as economic activity has been recovering,” the institution said. in a press release.

The survey of the Continuous National Survey of Force of Worked corresponding to the period January-March 2022, which each quarter is carried out under a sampling framework of 8,480 homes selected throughout the national territory, showed that the total number of employed persons reached 4,640,113 workers in the first quarter of the year, a level close to the Total employment observed prior to the pandemic, for an increase of 226,730 net employed persons compared to the January-March 2021 quarter, equivalent to a growth of 5.1%.

Last May, in a Interview with Free Journalthe minister of Worked Luis Miguel de Camps said that, as an authority, what he is looking for to facilitate the growth of formal employment or formalization is to educate, on the one hand, but also to expand Social Security benefits.

He indicated that many times the population or some part of the workers may “not know in its fair dimension” all the benefits that Social Security has and that this is achieved through formalization.

Economics editor and professor of journalism. She has specialized in investigative, multimedia and data journalism.

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