Colombia | May: The unemployment rate remained at low levels.

Summary

The national unemployment rate for May 2025 was 9.0%, lower than 10.3% a year ago and the lowest for a May in the last 24 years. Seasonally adjusted, the rate showed a decreasing trend between June 2024 and April 2025 and was around 9% in the March-May 2025 period.

Key points

• Key points:
• The reduction in the unemployment rate was largely due to the positive dynamics of employment, which went from falling in June 2024 (by 0.6% annually) to growing almost 5% in March 2025 (4.7% annually). In April and May of this year, the unemployment rate remained at low levels, despite the slowdown in job creation (to 3.1% in April and 2.6% in May), partly explained by the deceleration in the growth of the economically active population (a proxy for labor supply).
• For April and May, non-wage employment showed a slowdown compared to March; growing at 3.8% annually in April and 3.9% in May (456 thousand jobs out of 597 thousand created) but its growth continued to be above that of wage employment (2.4% in April and 1.3% in May). However, labor informality, measured as the proportion of non-wage workers to total occupied, increased from 51.5% in April 2024 and 51.1% in May 2024 to 51.8% in April and May 2025.
• By sectors, Transport, Professional Services, and Commerce jointly contributed 75% of the annual employment created in May; creating 447 thousand of the total 597 thousand jobs created.

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