Unemployment in Latin America will be 28.8 million people

The number of unemployed in Latin America and the Caribbean will rise to 28.8 million people in 2022, which represents a decrease of 1.3 million unemployed in 2021, but 4.5 million more than in 2019, according to a report prepared by the International Labor Organization (ILO).

If the agency’s projections are fulfilled, Latin America and the Caribbean would provide 13.9% of the registered unemployed worldwide, which would amount to 207 million people.

In 2020, the Americas subregion recorded a net job loss of approximately 25 million people, of which almost 82% resulted in departures from the labor force. While the crisis affected all economic sectors, virus containment measures and mobility restrictions protected labor relocation in informal employment, which in previous crises had been a “key” labor adjustment mechanism in the region.

The closure and disappearance of millions of micro, small and medium enterprises suggests that the labor recovery will be delayed in line with the slow progress of the economic recovery, which is likely to deteriorate the quality of employment. In fact, although macroeconomic growth indicators performed well in 2021, employment growth remains limited and has been largely linked to informal work.

The ILO estimates that the total number of employees in 2022 will be around 460 million people, twelve million more than in 2021 and three million less than in 2019, the year before the outbreak of the pandemic.

K. Tovar

Source: Américaeconomía