In Colombia, unemployment figures seem to celebrate one of their best moments, after between January and August 2025, the average rate was 9.4%, the lowest level of the 21st century, even below the 2015 record, which until now had the best performance in labor matters and generating data that have been celebrated by the National Government, as a sign that the economy is advancing.
However, behind this statistical achievement hides a less optimistic reality in which, it seems, more and more Colombians have stopped looking for work to dedicate themselves to household chores and caring for their families and in which the aging of the population is already beginning to take its toll on the workforce.
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This is observed in the most recent Corficolombiana report, titled ‘Deciphering the labor market’, which warns that the country is going through a good moment in terms of employment, but with an increasingly reduced workforce, since the labor participation rate fell from 67.2% in 2015 to 64.2% in 2025, which is equivalent to 3.4 million additional people out of the labor market.
In other words, these analysts assure that although there are more people employed, there are also fewer people looking for work or who want to have one; while making it clear that the explanation for this fact lies in the growth of inactivity.
The labor market in Colombia faces very great challenges due to the aging of the population.
Image from ChatGPT
According to the report, the inactivity rate, that is, the percentage of people of working age who are neither employed nor looking for work, went from 32.8% in 2015 to 35.8% in 2025 and within that figure, a phenomenon that dominates strongly stands out, due to the increase in those who are dedicated to household chores.
“In just a decade, the proportion of people in this condition grew from 16.2% to 19.6% of the working-age population, which represents some 2.4 million more Colombians dedicated to domestic work or caring for family members, without remuneration or economic recognition,” they stated.
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Women, the most affected
The study indicates that two out of every ten people of working age are out of the labor market for this reason, and that 80% of them are women; highlighting that between 2015 and 2025, the number of men inactive due to work of the household increased by 567,000, but that of women was 230% higher, with an increase of 1.9 million.
“Currently, the total number of inactive women due to household chores is almost eight times greater than that of men,” concluded César Pabón, director of Economic Research at Corficolombiana, who made it clear that it is not a matter that can be taken lightly, given that instead of closing gender gaps, there are risks of a possible expansion of this scourge.
The labor market in Colombia faces very great challenges due to the aging of the population.
Image from ChatGPT
On the other hand, they stated that the phenomenon has several explanations. On the one hand, the lack of support networks for caring for children and the elderly, as well as the insufficiency of public care services, continue to push women, especially those with lower incomes, to remain out of the labor market.
On the other hand, they highlighted that the structural conditions of the country, with a labor supply still concentrated in informal or low-paid jobs, reduce the incentives for many people to return to work and have to share household responsibilities, forcing many to stay at home.
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Given this, Corficolombiana emphasizes that this trend is not a generalized phenomenon in the region, since in the last decade, “Colombia was the Latin American country with the largest drop in labor participation. While Peru reduced its rate by 1.5 percentage points, and countries such as Chile, Brazil and Mexico remained stable, Colombia recorded a decrease of three points. The change, therefore, is more structural than conjunctural.”
An aging market
Although inactivity is growing in all age groups, its impact is uneven if we take into account that among those over 65 years of age, the proportion within the working-age population increased from 8.2% in 2015 to 10.7% in 2025, a reflection of demographic aging.
The labor market in Colombia faces very great challenges due to the aging of the population.
Image from ChatGPT
“However, an increase is also observed among adults aged 29 to 65 years.a segment that in theory should be at its maximum productive stage. In this group, inactivity due to domestic work went from 9.1% to 10.4%, that is, 1.1 million additional people out of the market,” they explained from Corfi.
With all of the above, the report affirms that lower labor participation is not a minor detail, since it has direct effects on unemployment statistics and on the economy in general and, for example, a smaller workforce causes increases in employment to reduce the unemployment rate more than what market conditions actually reflect.
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According to Corficolombiana’s analysis, if labor participation in 2025 were the same as in 2015, the unemployment rate would be between 9% and 13.5%, depending on how many of the newly inactive people had managed to find employment. In the most adverse scenario, where If none of them had done so, the rate would be 13.5%; In the most optimistic, it would barely fall to 9%.
“This means that part of the improvement in unemployment is not necessarily due to more job opportunities, but to fewer people available to work. Colombia is going through a good time in employment, but with lower participation and more inactivity than the previous decade,” the report concludes.
The labor market in Colombia faces very great challenges due to the aging of the population.
Image from ChatGPT
César Pabón, director of research at Corfi, closed by saying that the phenomenon of inactivity It is not always due to external impositions and more and more Colombians express that they do not want to join the labor market, especially when in 2025, 30.2% of the working-age population expressed that they do not want to get a job or undertake an economic activity, compared to 23.5% in 2015.
“We are talking about a growing portion of the population capable of working that has chosen, voluntarily or involuntarily, not to do so. Some do so for structural reasons, such as the lack of formal employment or the high costs of transportation and child care; others, due to a change in their aspirations or in the composition of households, where the number of older adults increases and the birth rate decreases,” he concluded.
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Finally, the report proposes looking at this phenomenon with a long-term perspective, given that population aging will continue to increase levels of inactivity in the coming decades, which requires policies that encourage the employability of older adults, as well as strategies that expand female participation.
Thus, while the economy seeks new formulas to reactivate formal employment and increase productivity, the growing inactivity becomes an uncomfortable mirror of the Colombian labor reality, which leaves a reminder that full employment is not only measured in figures, but in the country’s capacity to allow everyone, especially women, to work if they wish.
DANIEL HERNÁNDEZ NARANJO
Portfolio Journalist
