Weekly Report - 30 September 2003

COLOMBIA | Jobs market shrinking. Employment in Colombia in the first seven months of the year was down 1.58% on the same period last year, and the trend is worsening: the July employment rate was down 2.46%. The breakdown provided by Dane shows two things: first, that the proportion of permanent jobs is shrinking (from 65% to 62% over the past year) while that of temporary contracts is growing (from 35% to 38%); second, that job losses have been far greater among white-collar employees (-3.5% in the year) than among blue-collar workers (-0.64%). This fits data showing that industrial production and sales have been increasing: in the first seven months they were up 4.46% and 5.08% year-on-year, respectively.