Colombia’s Jobless Rate Rises in January

Colombia’s unemployment rate rose to 10.9% in January 2026, up from 8.0% in December, with a sharp gender gap of 8.7% for men and 13.8% for women, a 5.2 p.p. difference. This marks the highest jobless rate since January 2025. In the 13 major cities and metropolitan areas, unemployment stood at 10.6%. Public administration, defense, education, and health services drove job growth, adding 172,000 employed individuals in January.

Colombia’s unemployment rate rose to 8.0% in December 2025 from 7.0% in November. In the 13 major cities and metropolitan areas, the jobless rate stood at 7.8%, down from 9.0% in December 2024. The labor force participation rate edged slightly lower to 64.3% from 64.4% a year earlier, while the employment rate increased to 59.2% from 58.5% in December 2024, indicating modest gains in job creation despite the monthly rise in unemployment.

Colombia’s unemployment rate fell to 7.0% in November 2025 from 8.2% in October, the lowest level in the historical series. The number of unemployed declined by 241,000 year-on-year, with the sharpest drops in rural areas (-31.0%) and in the 10 largest cities (-16.9%). The gender gap narrowed to a record-low 3.5 percentage points, with unemployment at 5.5% for men and 9.1% for women. In the September-November rolling quarter, the highest unemployment rates were recorded in Quibdó (21.8%), Cartagena (12.6%), and Riohacha (11.7%), while the lowest were seen in Villavicencio (6.8%), Bogotá (7.0%), and the Manizales metropolitan area (7.2%).