Unemployment rises to 7.5% during September-November trimester

SANTIAGO.- The Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE) announced today that unemployment reached 7.5% during the September-November trimester. The figure is higher than the statistic registered during the same period of last year and is equal to that of the trimester immediately preceding it.

Market forecasts had predicted the unemployment rate to reach 7.3%.

In line with the tendency observed throughout the rest of the year, the labor force reported a more significant amount of growth  (3.6%) than employment (3.4%) over the last 12 months.

At the same time, the number of people unemployed rose by 6.1% as a result of an increase in jobless individuals as well as a reduction in the number of people looking for work for the first time, which is a phenomenon that has been observed over the last five measurement periods.

Meanwhile, Construction and Commerce continued to display the largest surges in employment over the last 12 months, although both have indicated slight reductions in comparison to the previous trimester.