Chile’s jobless rate likely to have remained unchanged at 6.4 pct in November

Chile’s jobless rate is expected to have stayed the same in November. The economy of Chile is growing below its lowered trend rate of about 2.5 percent from more than 4 percent just a few years ago. Any rebound in growth from current levels also seems unlikely at the moment given the challenging external environment, said Societe Generale in a research report.

Given this backdrop, the gradual adjustment of the Chilean labor market is not being captured entirely by the jobless rate. The unemployment rate rose through the first half of 2016, but it dropped 0.7 percentage points since July, possibly because of a decline in the participation rate and the healthy expansion of self employment.

“For November, we expect the unemployment rate to remain unchanged at 6.4 percent, assuming 1.40 percent yoy growth in the labour force and 1.0 percent yoy growth in employment”, added Societe Generale.

In the meantime, making inferences from the labor market would be challenging because of statistical discrepancies given the limited available data in the present survey, Labor market is likely to weaken further in the medium term from the current levels.