Adequate employment was 38.5 percent; while underemployment registered represented 19.7 percent of the population.
Unemployment in Ecuador reached 4.9 percent in September, growing 0.9 percent since September 2018, the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC) reported.
According to the latest National Survey on Employment, Unemployment, and Under-employment, the number of unemployed in the last year grew by 74,053 people. By September 406,871 Ecuadorians had no job.
Adequate employment, which contemplates social benefits and a salary higher than the minimum was 38.5 percent; while underemployment registered represented 19.7 percent of the population.
On Sept. 1, 2017, President Lenin Moreno signed executive order 135, which stated the overall strategy to take in order to “optimize and reduce public spending.” Based on that the Coordinating Company of Public Companies (EMCO) announced in February 2019 that public companies were to cut 10% of their payroll. According to EMCO, the companies under its coordination report 39 100 workers, which would mean almost firing 4,000 employees.
While another determinant is the signing of a US$4.2 billion deal with the IMF. Ecuador’s government presented a Letter of Intent to the institution on March 1 which was made public on March 21. This official document details all the actions and conditions a national government is willing to accept and apply in order to obtain the IMF loan, including major labor reforms and layoffs in the public sector.
This article originally appeared on teleSUR English.
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