The unemployment rate in Ecuador is at 6.6%

Unemployment for women was higher than for men in this period

The National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INEC) released the new figures on the labor situation in the country, after the most critical months of the pandemic. As of September 2020, the unemployment rate fell from 13.3% (in June) to 6.6%.

According to the study, women are the ones who maintain a high unemployment rate. In this period, at the national level, 8.0% of women were unemployed, while unemployment was 5.7% for men.

Of the 7.8 million Ecuadorians that make up the Economically Active Population (EAP), 7.3 million are employed and 522.620 are unemployed.

With respect to the first group, 2.5 million have full employment, 1.8 million are underemployed, 847.702 in unpaid employment, 2’070.291 in other non-full employment and 67.018 in unclassified employment.

In a comparison between May and June (the most critical months of the pandemic) with September of this year, adequate or full employment went from 16.7% to 32.1%, underemployment fell from 34.5% to 23, 4%. While other non-full employment rose from 25.2% to 26.3% and unpaid employment also increased from 7.7% to 10.8%.

As of September of this year, the figures reflect positive data on the employment situation, after the hardest months that Ecuador lived due to COVID-19, but compared to the 2019 data there is a negative result. For example, the number of unemployed increased. In September 2019 there were 406.871 unemployed and in September 2020 it rose to 522.620. The unemployment rate was 4.9% and this September it is 6.6%.

Regarding underemployment, in September of the previous year there were 1.6 million citizens in this category, in the critical months of the pandemic there were 2.6 million and as of September 2020 there are 1.8 million.

The number of Ecuadorians with full employment also decreased compared to 2019. In September of the previous year, there were 3.2 million with adequate or full employment, while in the same period of this year it fell to 2.5 million people