Characteristics of Colombia in terms of Formal and Informal Work.

Unemployment in Colombia in july according to the official source reached 9.9%, which is equivalent to 2.555.000 unemployed inhabitants, higher than the 2.454.000 of the previous year.

Unemployment in Colombia according to international organizations of 9.6% for the year 2.023 is above the Latin American average of 6.4%, exceeding Ecuador 3.5%, Peru 4.5%, Argentina 6.1%, Chile 9% and Mexico 2.8% and is surpassed by Haiti 14.1% and Guyana 13.5%.

At a global level, the United States registers 3.6%, Japan 2.6%, the European Union 6%, the United Arab Emirates 2.9%. Among the highest are Congo 10%, Cape Verde 11.3%, Iraq 16.2%, Jordan 18.2% and Libya 19%.

In order for Colombia to reach the Latin American average of 6.4%, the number of unemployed must be reduced to 1.648,.512. If it wants to reach the United States level of 3.6%, it must reduce it to 927.288. To be like Japan with 2.6%, it must reduce it to 669.708.

As mentioned before, there are 2.555.000 unemployed inhabitants and according to the official source, there are 23.203.000 inhabitants who have jobs. The latter are located as follows: 3.379.000 in agriculture, 3.969.000 in commerce, 2.878.888 in public administration and 2.561.000 in industry. Others are in artistic activities 1.948.000, in professional activities 1.822.000 and in transportation 1.717.000. In construction 1.592.000.

Also, those who have a job can be classified between those who are employees and those who are self-employed. In this aspect, private employees are 10.116.000 inhabitants, self-employed 9.604.000 and government employees 896.000.

By cities, those with the highest unemployment are Quibdó 26.8%, Riohacha 16.6%, Ibagué 15.7% and Florencia 15.3%. On the other hand, those with the lowest unemployment are Bucaramanga 8.4%, Medellín 9%, Santa Marta 9.15 and Bogotá 10%.

Regarding the issue of informality, the latest available data is 56% of workers in july, which is higher than 56.4% of the previous year. That is, of the 23.203.000 workers, 13.002.000 are in informality and 10.201.000 are in formality.

Informality in the center of Colombian cities is 42.3% and in rural areas it is 83.8%.

With all of the above, it can be seen that Colombia is behind other Latin American countries in terms of employment levels of its population and obviously with respect to countries in Europe and the United States, which is why, according to what is presented in this note, it needs to lower unemployment by 1 million inhabitants and more than that if it intends to reach the figures of those.

Regarding the population that has work, they are mainly located in commerce and agriculture, followed by public administration and then industry. The private sector is called upon to generate jobs, especially formal ones, in the sectors with the highest number of workers, such as commerce and agriculture, where there is mainly informal work. Informal jobs in Colombia outnumber formal jobs, as mentioned above. Industry must overcome its production gap and generate new jobs.

Finally, Bogotá, Medellín and Cali, compared to other cities in the country, have lower unemployment rates, as well as lower informality rates, so public policy should focus on the populations with the highest unemployment and informality, such as Sincelejo, Montería, Valledupar and Riohacha, which have the highest levels of informality.