With 91,990 new full jobs and with a drop in unemployment to 3.2%, Ecuador closed 2022, according to a report from the INEC

Marisol Cárdenas, 27, with a university degree in communication, He landed a public relations job in mid-2022, but he didn’t sign a contract and had a significant workload. Her remuneration was paid at the end of the month: “a salary higher than the basic, but without any type of document in between”. She decided these days to start her own communication venture and at the end of last year she got a new job opportunity, but she had to submit invoices for services, so she did not accept it.

Her husband Ramiro Ruales, 28, also got a job last year, in a marketing agency, although his title had nothing to do with this branch of activity. Nor has it achieved all the legal conditions: “He has a good salary, but he has not signed a contract, nor does he have an IESS”, comments Marisol. She is concerned because she says that most of her classmates have a job, but in a somewhat informal way. “Only if you enter the public sector do they make you sign a contract, in the private sector it is very difficult.” Despite this, this young couple found work.

The expert in labor issues and professor at the International University of La Rioja (UNIR), José Irigoyen, places this couple in full employment, a category that measures the economic issue, but not the legal one.

Full employment according to the description of the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INEC) includes “employees who, during the reference week, receive labor income equal to or greater than the minimum wage, work equal to or more than 40 hours a week” .

This category in 2022 had an increase of 91,990 jobs. This full employment figure is the result of comparing December 2021 when there were 2,919,910 full employees and December 2022 when 3,011,800 people with adequate employment were registered. The right job – which in 2021 was in 33.95%- rose in 2022 to 36%. In any case, the increase in this indicator is not statistically significant, according to the INEC.

Irigoyen says that in the case of Marisol and Ramiro the issue of informality is also seen. The INEC indicated that in terms of the employed population a 53.4% ​​were in the informal sector as of December 2022. This figure is higher than that registered in December 2021, which was 50.6%.

In Regarding unemployment, a statistically significant drop was recorded, going from 356,725 to 216,942 unemployed people. Thus, Ecuador closed the year with unemployment of 3.2%, less than 4.1% registered in 2021. Additionally, underemployment also registered a statistically significant drop, going from 1,976,088 underemployed to 1,618,846. This means that it fell from 23% in 2021 to 19.4% in 2022. These are the main data published by the INEC in its most recent report that includes the comprehensive behavior of 2022.

For the expert, the employment, unemployment and underemployment figures published by the INEC reflect a positive behavior of the economy and the labor market. He considers that it is important that employment has continued to grow, even after the rebound in 2021. He explains that in other countries there has rather been a contraction in employment in 2022 or it remained in the same ranges.

And he comments that this growth in employment in Ecuador may be due, among other factors, to the fact that since the pandemic slightly more flexible figures to hire. Among them, for example, is the Special Emerging Contract that appears from the Humanitarian Support Law or the Contract for work or service, which comes into force with the ministerial agreement MDT 2020 136. (YO)