Colombia macroeconomic monitordata as of 9 Oct 2026
Jobs and informality
How many work, where and how: unemployment, informality, jobs by sector and by type of work, gaps between women and men, young people, urban and rural areas, and the 32 capital cities.
Jobs in eight measures
- Colombia has 24.2 million employed people, +642 thousand more than a year earlier, and seasonally adjusted unemployment is 9.7%.
- Wage employment is gaining ground: 48.2% of the employed, versus 43.4% in 2019.
- Gaps persist: women's unemployment exceeds men's by 3.8 pp and 20.6% of young people neither study nor work.
How are jobs doing, and how much employment is informal?
- The unemployment rate was 9.7% in Aug 2026 (a year earlier: 8.9%).
- In the May–Jul 2026 rolling quarter, 54.6% of employed people in Colombia worked informally (13.4 million people), versus 55.0% a year earlier.
- In the 13 main cities the share is lower (40.6%).
- At the start of the series, in 2021, it was 60.7%.
?Share of people looking for work who cannot find it, seasonally adjusted. The blue line is a three-month average to smooth noise.
?Share of employed people working without social security or in unregistered businesses (DANE definition). Each point is a rolling quarter. Below, the change versus a year earlier: orange bars = informality fell.
?Share of each sector's workers who are informal. The vertical tick is the figure a year earlier. Hover to see how many people that is.
?Share of workers who are informal in each city. In blue, the 13 main cities; in grey, the other 10 capitals that complete the 23. The vertical tick is the figure a year earlier.
Learn more
The 13 main cities are: Barranquilla A.M., Bogotá D.C., Bucaramanga A.M., Cali A.M., Cartagena, Cúcuta A.M., Ibagué, Manizales A.M., Medellín A.M., Montería, Pasto, Pereira A.M., Villavicencio. "A.M." means metropolitan area (the city and its neighbouring municipalities). Informality is higher in rural areas and smaller cities, where self-employment and unregistered businesses dominate; that is why the national total (which includes rural areas) exceeds the cities'.
Where are jobs being created (and lost)?
- Over the last year (3-month average versus the same period a year earlier) Government, education and health added 194 thousand jobs and Construction 127 thousand; Farming and fishing lost 112 thousand.
- Versus 2019, employment has grown most in Mining and utilities (+64.0%) and fallen most in Farming and fishing (-2.7%).
?Employed (average of the last 3 months) minus the same period a year earlier. Blue: creating jobs; orange: losing them.
?Employed over the last 12 months versus the 2019 average, by sector.
What kind of jobs are being created?
- Private-sector wage employees are 44.4% of the employed and own-account workers 41.3%.
- Over the last year private wage employees changed by +184 thousand and own-account workers by +257 thousand: employment grows mainly through self-employment, more exposed to informality.
?Share of each occupational status in total employment, 12-month average. The blue band (private wage employees) is employment with a contract and mostly formal.
?Employed over the last 3 months versus the same period a year earlier.
How do women fare compared with men?
- Over the last 12 months women's unemployment was 10.7% and men's 6.9%: a 3.8 pp gap (it was 5.5 pp in 2019).
- Women's labour participation is 53.2%, versus 76.7% for men: 10.0 million women are outside the labour force, most of them doing household work.
?Unemployment rate, 12-month average (not seasonally adjusted).
?Participation rate: share of working-age people who work or look for work. 12-month average.
How are young people doing?
- Unemployment among 15–28 year-olds is 14.1% (Jul 2026), 1.5 times the overall rate; for young women it reaches 17.5%. 20.6% of young people are neither studying nor employed (in 2019, 24.1%); 68% of them are women.
?Rolling quarter. Grey line: unemployment for the whole population, for reference.
?Share of all 15–28 year-olds, split between women and men (they add up to the total). Rolling quarter.
Countryside and cities, and those who do not participate
- In urban areas unemployment is 9.0% and in rural areas 6.5% (Aug 2026): a gap of 2.4 pp. 14.6 million working-age people do not participate: 7.9 million do household work and 3.4 million study.
?Urban: municipal town centres. Rural: villages and dispersed rural areas. Rolling quarter.
?Millions of working-age people who neither work nor look for work, by main activity. 12-month average.
Unemployment in the 32 capital cities
- In the year to Aug 2026, unemployment ranges from 3.5% in Leticia to 24.0% in Quibdó.
- It fell in 24 of 32 capitals versus a year earlier.
- The three with the highest unemployment are Quibdó (24.0%), Mocoa (21.4%), Arauca (14.7%).
?Grey dot: the rolling year ending a year earlier. Coloured dot: the latest. Green if it fell; orange if it rose.
Methodological basis and literature
- OIT (2013). Resolución sobre las estadísticas del trabajo, la ocupación y la subutilización de la fuerza de trabajo. 19.ª CIET.Definitions of employment, unemployment, labour force and underutilisation.
- OIT (1993). Resolución sobre la Clasificación Internacional de la Situación en el Empleo (CISE-93). 15.ª CIET.Status in employment: employees, own-account, employers, family workers.
- Maloney, W. F. (2004). Informality Revisited. World Development, 32(7), 1159–1178.Informality and self-employment as choice versus segmentation.
- Goldin, C. (2014). A Grand Gender Convergence: Its Last Chapter. American Economic Review, 104(4), 1091–1119.Gaps in participation and labour outcomes between women and men.
- Bell, D. N. F. y Blanchflower, D. G. (2011). Young People and the Great Recession. Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 27(2), 241–267.Youth unemployment and long-term scarring.
- DANE. Gran Encuesta Integrada de Hogares: metodología y marco conceptual (2021).Source of all data on this page.
Frequently asked questions
What is Colombia's unemployment rate?
Colombia has 24.2 million employed people, +642 thousand more than a year earlier, and seasonally adjusted unemployment is 9.7%. Wage employment is gaining ground: 48.2% of the employed, versus 43.4% in 2019.
How is the unemployment rate calculated?
Unemployed people divided by the labour force (employed plus unemployed), from DANE's household survey (GEIH).
What is labour informality?
The share of employed people without social protection or working in unregistered units, following DANE's definition aligned with the ILO.