Unemployment in Santiago climbs to 8.9% in December

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SANTIAGO.- The unemployment rate reached 8.9% during December 2007, showing an increase of 0.2 percentage points when compared to data from the same month in 2006.

The figure exhibits a rise of 0.9 percentage points in the unemployment rate when compared to the poll taken in September of 2007.

December of last year marked the first jump in unemployment in 12 months (since June 2005), breaking the pattern of decline that had been observed until that point.

The sectors with the highest incidence of unemployment are construction, trade, as well as personal and domestic services.

The annual growth rate of employment is currently 1.7%.