Colombia | March: Job creation continues to accelerate

Summary

The national unemployment rate for March 2025 was 9.6% and the seasonally adjusted rate was 9.1% marking the third consecutive monthly decrease and placing it more than one percentage point below its 2024 average. This positive performance in the unemployment rate is mainly attributed to the strong dynamics of employment.

Key points

• Key points:
• Employment has accelerated its annual growth rate month over month since the end of last year, reaching a growth of 4.7% in March of this year compared to March of the previous year.
• The boost in employment has mainly come from non-wage employment, which grew by 8.0% annually in March. Self-employed workers contributed the most to this 8% growth in non-wage employment, accounting for 5.3 percentage points. Consequently, the informal employment rate increased from 56.3% in March 2024 to 57.2% in March 2025.
• The primary driver of employment growth in March was agriculture (+381,000 jobs), followed by industry (+218,000 jobs). The public administration, health, and education sector experienced job losses (-153,000 jobs).
• The potentially high creation of informal employment in March can be attributed to the sectoral composition of the jobs created that month, with a significant share in agricultural employment, the most informal sector of the economy, and a substantial loss of jobs in public administration, health, and education, one of the most formal sectors.

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