Unemployment in Colombia continues to show signs of good health, following the data released today indicating that the share of people without work at the end of October in the South American country was 8.2% of the active population. This figure confirms a downward trend in unemployment — and represents a significant improvement compared to the same month of the previous year.
Despite still-high inflation — above 5% — and an interest rate of 9.25%, the Colombian labor market is experiencing its best moment in decades, despite the scourge of high informality which, in addition to its implications for individuals and families, hampers tax collection and the state’s finances.
Andrea Ramirez Pisco, deputy director of the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE), noted that the unemployment rate “is the lowest ever recorded in the series since 2017, with a similar figure in October 2014; from then on, it is the lowest value for an October.”
Unemployment in Colombia fell again in October
According to data released this Friday morning, Nov. 28, unemployment in Colombia registered 8.2%, a figure that consolidates the positive trend within a context of gradual recovery.
In previous months, for instance, in August 2025, the rate had reached 8.6%, but the improvement is more evident when comparing the figure with that of exactly one year ago. In October 2024, Colombian unemployment stood at 9.1%, which represents a 12-month decrease of 0.9%.
With these data released today, it is inferred that the unemployed population in Colombia was 2.1 million people. This decline in unemployment is accompanied by a slight improvement in labor participation: The Global Participation Rate (TGP) stood at around 65%, while the Employment Rate reached 59.7%. These movements suggest that more people are actively seeking jobs and, to a greater extent, managing to enter the labor market.
The 8.2% rate is — certainly — one of the lowest recorded in recent years. During 2025, for example, July saw a rate of 8.8%, the lowest reading for that month since 2001. In that sense, October confirms that the downward trend remains in place.
However, the data also highlight persistent inequalities. The DANE report shows a gender gap in unemployment: The rate for women remained at 10.9%, while for men it stood at 6.2%. This difference — although smaller than in previous years — underscores the need to achieve equitable access to employment.
Additionally, although the number of employed people increased — an estimated 977,000 more people are working compared to the previous year — the improvement is not evenly distributed across all sectors or populations.
¡El dato del día! 📉 En octubre de 2025, la tasa de desocupación se ubicó en 8,2%, una variación estadísticamente significativa frente a octubre de 2024, cuando fue del 9,1%.
📌 Esta tasa es la más baja de toda la serie desde 2014 para octubre. pic.twitter.com/8o9JomkVSP
— DANE Colombia (@DANE_Colombia) November 28, 2025
What the new report suggests about the national economy
The behavior of unemployment in October offers encouraging signs for the Colombian economy: A labor market that is slowly stabilizing, with more people working and fewer people unemployed. This dynamism could boost consumption, improve household incomes, and, in turn, have positive effects on other macroeconomic variables such as poverty or informality.
Nonetheless, the data calls for a cautious reading. The improvement in employment does not guarantee that jobs are of good quality, well-paid, or formal. While the decline in unemployment is good news in quantitative terms, structural conditions — informality, precariousness, social gaps — remain unresolved issues in the Colombian economy.
Of all these aspects, however, informality is what weighs down these positive figures. In October it stood at 56.1%, meaning it increased compared to the 55.3% recorded in October of last year. This means that the country has approximately 13.6 million informal workers, compared with 12.9 million a year ago.
This reality, beyond its impact on individuals and families, means that a significant segment of the population remains outside the tax system, severely affecting the state’s revenue. Although this is not a new reality in Colombia, in the current context of fiscal deficits and tight public finances, informality represents the consolidation of a situation that limits the country’s effective possibilities for growth.