Adequate employment increased by 1.9 percentage points last year.
In comparison, underemployment fell by 2.4 percentage points, which would indicate an improvement in the Ecuadorian labor market according to INEC’s latest statistics on Tuesday.
Likewise, unemployment stood at 4.1% in September, eight-tenths less than a year ago.
“The unemployment rate at the national level reached 4.1% compared to 4.9% in the same period last year; so it suffered a non-significant decrease of 0.8 percentage points.”
“Divided by area, the unemployment rate was 5.2% for the urban area, while for the rural area it was 2%”, the report states.
This data translates to 354,324 people currently unemployed, which was 412,441 a year ago.
Also, the increase in adequate employment means that 234,069 people have been added to this situation and currently have a job with all the benefits of the law.
In September 2021, 2′843,732 people were fully employed (33.5%), while in September of this year, this number increased to 3′077,801 (35.4%).
Another important fact is the reduction of underemployment. Some people earned below the minimum wage, worked less than the legal working day, and had the willingness and availability to work overtime. In one year, this rate fell from 22.7% to 20.3%.
Despite the improvement in most indicators, the majority of Ecuadorian workers remain in the informal sector, with 52.1%.
Employment in the informal sector is operationally defined as employment in production units with fewer than 100 workers that do not have a single Register of Taxpayers (RUC).
In contrast, employment in the formal sector is defined as work in establishments with an RUC.
