Quito, Jan 28 (Prensa Latina) According to the most recent data from the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC), unemployment has increased in Ecuador, where more than five million people live in poverty
Adequate employment closed December 2024 at just 33 percent, the lowest rate of the year, having experienced a drop of 2.9% compared to the same month in 2023, although for the INEC “there is no statistically significant difference.”
Individuals with stable jobs typically work 40 hours a week and earn at least a minimum salary, projected to be $470 in 2025. However, those not in this category lack guaranteed benefits. As of December, informal employment has risen to 58 percent, the highest rate recorded since 2007.
In the same month, the unemployment rate stood at 2.7 percent, meaning approximately 230,000 people without work.
Another indicator that reflects the precariousness of the labor market is the fall in Ecuadorian income, which averaged 354.6 dollars per month, having decreased by 45.3 dollars.
Meanwhile, poverty also rose from 26 to 28 percent between 2023 and 2024, the highest rate since June 2021, during the Covid-19 pandemic. This meant that by December 2024 5.2 million people were living in poverty, with incomes less than 91.43 dollars per month, according to INEC data.
Former Minister of Economy Marco Flores pointed out in his account of X that the current precariousness of the labor market is a consequence of insufficient investment that, if not stable, slows down, stagnates, or contracts economic growth. So, there is no way to create sustained employment, rebuild public services, create opportunities for people to progress, or reduce poverty, said the expert, for whom “this disaster is the direct cause of the migration of the poor.”
Flores stressed that “the policies of the local neoliberals show all their social destruction” and blamed the situation on measures such as the increase in the Value Added Tax (VAT) decreed by the current president Daniel Noboa.
jrr/llp/jha/avr