According to the director of that entity, Piedad Urdinola, the employment rate was 58.3 percent in the country, which represents a slight decrease compared to the same period in the annual comparison.

For men, the unemployment rate was 8.1 percent, while for women it was 11.7 percentage points.

The source specified that the employed population in the month analyzed was 23 million 400 thousand, the number of unemployed Colombians was two million 505 thousand (an increase of 136 thousand) and the inactive number totaled 14 million 200 thousand.

Construction was one of the sectors that showed the greatest decrease in employed labor with a reduction of 84 thousand people.

DANE also reported that in August labor informality rose one tenth to 56 percent and youth unemployment grew almost one percentage point to 17.3 percent.

Other data indicate that the city with the highest unemployment rate was Arauca, in the east with 30.6 percent, while Leticia, in the south, had the lowest with 3.6 percent.

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