Colombia’s Unemployment Rate Falls in September

Colombia’s national unemployment rate fell to 8% in September 2026 from 9.4% in August. In the 13 main cities and metropolitan areas, unemployment stood at 8.3%. The national labor force participation rate was 63.8%, while the employment rate reached 58.7%. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate averaged 8.5% in the July–September 2026 quarter, unchanged from the same period in 2025.

Colombia’s unemployment rate rose to 9.4% in August 2026 from 8.1% in July. In the 13 cities and metropolitan areas, the unemployment rate increased to 9.1% from 8.5%. The rate stood at 11.6% among women and 7.7% among men. For the June-August 2026 moving quarter, the highest unemployment rates among the 23 cities and metropolitan areas were recorded in Quibdó (23.8%), Cartagena (14.4%), and Sincelejo (12.9%). The lowest rates were reported in Bucaramanga (7.3%), Medellín (7.5%), and Bogotá (7.9%).

Colombia’s unemployment rate edged up to 8.1% in July 2026 from 8.0% in June. In the 13 cities and metropolitan areas, the rate stood at 8.5%. The unemployment rate was 10.1% among women and 6.7% among men, resulting in a gender gap of 3.4 percentage points. The highest unemployment rates were recorded in Quibdó (23.0%), Cartagena (13.6%), and Sincelejo (13.0%), while the lowest were reported in Medellín (7.0%), Bucaramanga A.M. (7.2%), and Pereira A.M. (7.5%). Meanwhile, the number of unemployed people nationwide fell by 160,000 year-on-year, representing a 6.9% decline.