The National Institute of Statistics (INE) reported a 2.9% drop in the unemployment rate in Venezuela during the third quarter of this year, in relation to the same period in 2003, for a total unemployment rate of 15%. In the first quarter of 2004, the lack of jobs affected 1.81million people in Venezuela, a figure below the 2.16 million unemployed during the first quarter of 2003.

The rate of formal employment for the months of July, August, and September of 2004 was 49.9%, which represents an increase from the 47.3% rate of the same period in 2003. In absolute numbers, there were 5.13 million people with formal jobs in 2004, and 4.67 million in 2003.

The INE reports that 84% of the people with formal jobs belong to the public sector, and 16% to the public sector.

Although the INE report does not specify informal employment, out of an analysis of the sum of the rates of unemployment and of formal employment (64.9%), it may be concluded that the remaining 35.1% of the Economically Active Population (PEA) belongs to the informal economy.
Last November 2nd , the INE informed that monthly unemployment dropped from 16.7% to 14.5% between September of 2003 and September of 2004, and that the occupation rate had risen from 83.3% to 85.5% in that same period.

Published in Quantum Nº 42