Although Colombia’s unemployment rate (UR) has declined in recent years, it remains high in the international context. The most recent Labor Market Report from Banco de la República (the Central…
Morales-Zurita, Leonardo Fabio
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- Publicación |The results show a significant increase in formal employment among eligible firms, ranging from 11 to 18 percentage points compared to non-beneficiaries. This impact persisted for up to two years after the program ended.
- Publicación |In the Colombian labor market, possessing a broad and diverse set of skills and knowledge—beyond basic requirements for each occupation—can make a significant difference in wage determination.
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According to the Official Colombian Household Survey (GEIH), as of August 2025, national employment continued to grow.
- Publicación |National employment grew by 3.4% annually, driven by greater growth in other municipalities and rural areas (4.5%), while urban employment grew at a moderate rate of 2.5% annually.As a result, the national employment to population ratio (EPR) grew by 1.1 percentage points (pp) annually, driven by a…
- Publicación |As of February 2025, employment continued to grow at an annual rate of 3.9%, primarily driven by rural employment, which grew at a 4.9% rate.This has resulted in a 1.4 percentage point (pp) increase in the employment-to-population rate (EPR) and a 1.8 pp rise for rural areas. As a result, EPRs…
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Payroll taxes are a key tool for financing public goods and benefits for workers. However, they may also increase labor costs for formal employers, discouraging formal job creation and shifting labor to the informal sector. The magnitude of these negative effects is uncertain and depends on…
- Publicación |“… the costs of informality are higher: workers have limited social protection, businesses are less productive, and the state has reduced capacity to collect taxes and provide public goods. This leads to inefficient allocation of resources, which negatively impacts the country's economic growth.”
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Given the increase in the working-age population, the employment-to-population rate (ER) remained stable in the recent period, standing at 57.5% in the last rolling quarter, with a notable difference between urban areas (59%) and other municipalities and rural areas (55.9%).
- Publicación |A 1% decrease in payroll costs would increase employment in the formal sector by between 0.5% and 0.9%. This implication is specific to the Colombian context, where the minimum wage is binding for a large portion of formal sector workers, making it likely that formal labor demand drives these…
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Data from the Official Colombian Household Survey (GEIH, by its acronym in Spanish) suggests that, following a period of contraction at the end of 2023, employment grew across all geographic domains. This performance is largely explained by the stronger performance of employment in other…
- Publicación |Most macroeconomic labor literature on estimating matching functions does not consider spatial spillover effects. However, job search and vacancy-filling processes often involve neighboring locations, as local workers can search for and fill vacancies in nearby labor markets.
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Data from the Official Colombian Household Survey (GEIH by its acronym in Spanish) suggests that, following a period of contraction, national employment has stabilized in recent months, reaching levels close to 22.9 million employed people in the quarter ending in May 2024. This performance…
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In recent months, employment has continued to deteriorate at a moderate pace. According to data from the Official Colombian Household Survey (GEIH by its acronym in Spanish), national aggregate employment declined by 1.8% over the past six months, driven mainly by the rural area, while urban…
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As of August 2023, employment continued to grow in both urban and rural areas. According to data from the Official Colombian Household Survey (GEIH, by its acronym in Spanish), national aggregate employment grew by 4.8% annually, driven mainly by the strong performance of employment in urban…
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According to the most recent information from the Great Integrated Household Survey (GEIH in Spanish), as of May 2023, employment in the national aggregate grew by 3.4% in annual terms, mainly driven by the rural area, which grew by 4.0% annually, while in the urban area employment grew by 2.9…
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Data from the household survey for the quarter moving average ending in February show that annual job growth is slowing, and its levels remain stable. Although employment increased by 3.6% on an annual basis, equivalent to 768,000 new jobs, it has remained relatively stable in recent…
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As of November 2022, the Colombian labor market has stabilized. This is due to the heterogeneous dynamics between the urban and rural domains. In the first domain, employment continues to grow, while in the second, there have been contractions in recent months. Job losses in the rural area are…
- Publicación |Approach
At the end of each year, Colombia follows a negotiation protocol that leads to an increase in the minimum wage either by agreement between the parties or, in the absence of such agreement, by government decision. Despite evidence of its adverse effects on the labor market (formal…
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At the end of 2021, the labor market showed signs of a sluggish recovery, at a notably slower pace than economic activity. With seasonally adjusted figures from the household survey, job creation in the national aggregate saw a pause in October and November, due largely to a downturn in…
