Published on Wednesday, July 1, 2026

Colombia | Labor market remains resilient in May

Summary

The national unemployment rate declined to 8.0%, reaching historic lows, while employment growth accelerated to 4.0% year-on-year, driven primarily by the public administration, education and health sector.

Key points

Key points:
On a seasonally adjusted basis, the national unemployment rate stood at 8.1%, down from 8.6% in the previous month and below the 2025 average (8.9%). In fact, it was the lowest reading recorded for any month since 2001.
Employment increased by 956 thousand jobs compared with May last year. Non-wage employment grew by 5.0%, outpacing wage employment (3.0%), while informality continued to decline.
By sector, job creation was led by public administration, education and health, which added 405 thousand jobs, followed by manufacturing, with 218 thousand new jobs.
Female employment continued to outperform, growing by 6.1% (593 thousand new jobs), compared with 2.6% growth among men (363 thousand new jobs).
From a regional perspective, other urban areas together with small towns and dispersed rural areas led job creation, jointly contributing 3.2 percentage points to the overall 4.0% employment growth. By contrast, the recovery observed in April did not persist, and employment growth in the 13 largest cities returned to a more moderate pace.