In the month of January 2022, the unemployment rate rose to 7.4%, a slight increase compared to the previous month which was 7.0%.
That means that, of the 1,797,300 people of working age, 664,600 are employed and 132,700 unemployed, according to data released this Thursday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
Unemployment in January was higher in Montevideo than in the interior: in the capital it was 7.6% and in the rest of the country 7.2%.
8.1% of people with a job are underemployed, a mark that did drop compared to December when it was 9.2%; the percentage of people who are not registered in the social security system is 21.8%.
The percentage of absent employed persons was 25.1%. “This can be explained by the increase in absent employed people as a result of requesting leave (vacation, illness, study, care, etc.) and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” explains the Institute.
In summary, the activity rate fell from 62% to 61.7% and the employment rate from 57.7% to 57.1% from December 2020 to January 2021.
