Having timely and accurate sources is essential to understand the behavior of the labor market, whether that of Colombia as a whole or that of its specific regions and cities. That valuable information It is the primary input for making public policy decisions. that allow the democratization of decent and quality employment for citizens.
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In the Public Employment Service (SPE) we draw mainly from two sources to understand and interpret the dynamics of the labor market: the Great Integrated Household Survey, carried out by Dane with the aim of collecting sociodemographic, economic and labor data to analyze trends in employment, poverty and informality, among other variables; and the Administrative Records of the SPE, whose purpose is to complement the analysis with data on job searches, placements made and available vacancies.
From this information at the SPE we build Dataempleo, a monthly report that contains key information on job seekers, job offers and placements made – available on the SPE portal. And although the values in Dataempleo may be below the real market total, their evolution allows us to adequately visualize employment trends and labor demand.
We recently held our national meeting ‘Weaving networks for an inclusive and productive Colombia’ in Santa Marta, where I presented the Colombian labor panorama between the first half of 2023 and the same period of this year. I bring here three conclusions that, I believe, are interesting to broadly understand the behavior of employment in the country.
In the period analyzed, a mixed behavior was evident in the labor market. On the one hand, the number of people who entered Job search in the country’s 23 main cities increased 3.2%while job offers registered a decrease of 11.2%. However, a positive fact was the significant increase in the number of placements – that is, people who actually held a job -, which grew by 19.1%. These results reflect a complex dynamic, where despite the lower number of offers, more people managed to join the labor market.
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This means that the percentage of placements per search engine increased, which can be interpreted as an improvement in the job search processes. Yes ok Opportunities for searchers decreased, and the efficiency of search processes improved through the SPE provider network.
Another point worth highlighting is the gender focus and closing gaps. Data from Dataempleo indicate that the increase in the number of searchers occurred mainly among women, however, the number of placements favored men more. This means that, although more women looked for work, there were proportionally more men hired.
This phenomenon was evident in cities such as Riohacha and Villavicencio, and is mainly explained because The predominant economic activities in these capitals are related to tasks more related to mensuch as the mining and energy sector, intensive in male labor.
Labor market
In Riohacha, a significant imbalance is observed in terms of gender within the labor market: Although 52.1% of registered job seekers are women, only 25.7% of placements correspond to them.
This difference in the relationship between placements and seekers between men and women suggests the need for specific guidance and support programs for women, facilitating their access to employment, thus helping to reduce the existing gender gap.
The third aspect to highlight has to do with job offers and jobs according to your educational level.
In the period analyzed, an increase in the percentage of placements by search engines is observed at most educational levels. That is, the ease of getting jobs improved and the duration of searches probably decreased at all educational levels.
However, it is important to highlight the technical, technological and university levels, since In the 23 main cities, a relative frequency of offers is higher than that of search engines.. This indicates that companies are facing greater difficulties in filling offers related to these educational levels due to the lack of trained labor. For example, while 12.2% of search engines have a technical level, 26.8% of offers require this level, evidencing a mismatch between supply and demand in terms of training.
Fairly, To narrow the gaps between labor supply and demand, it is necessary to have more sources of information that allow for the design of more effective and precise public policies. Today, for example, it is a duty of companies to publish their vacancies in the tools offered by the SPE, however, the vast majority do not do so. Paradoxically, omitting this obligation ends up working against it, since with less data available there may be less connection between public policies and the real labor demands of the private sector.
To the extent that more companies offer their vacancies through robust and democratic channels, there will be more representative information about the labor market which, in turn, should translate into a greater number of placements. As a country, we must aim to create a virtuous work circle, which allows more people to access decent, quality work, while more companies find the ideal workforce to be more productive.
The labor market is a dynamic and changing universe that requires us to monitor it in a rigorous and detailed manner.since it is one of the pillars for the sustainable growth of any economy. To the extent that we have broader and more reliable sources of information, we will be able to design more effective and efficient public policies.
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PAULA HERRERA IDÁRRAGA
Director of the Public Employment Service.
