Formal employment in 2021 exceeded pre-pandemic levels

Total formal employment at the national level increased 1.9% in December 2021 compared to the same month in 2019, standing for the fifth consecutive month above the levels prepandemic, as reported by the Central Reserve Bank of Peru (BCRP). In this way, throughout 2021 there was an expansion of 0.3% compared to 2019, according to the Sunat electronic payroll report.

In detail, the public sector was the one that had the best behavior during the past year, since it registered an expansion of 7.2% compared to 2019, while employment in the private sector between January and December 2021 accumulated a drop of – 2.3%, continuing below its levels.

The details

Regarding jobs in the private sector, the BCRP He pointed out that these are already recovering, since a growth of 7% was observed in December of last year compared to a similar month in 2020. If compared to the result of 2019, there is also a positive rate of 0.1%.

”The growth rate of jobs in the private sector has been higher than that of total formal jobs; that is to say, it is the growth of private employment that has become more dynamic”, explained Adrián Armas, Central Manager of Economic Studies of the BCRP.

Likewise, the official highlighted that employment in the services sector grew 8.3% (139,000 new jobs) in last December compared to 2020, as an effect of vaccination, which generates greater confidence on the part of citizens.

The latter has also caused employment in Lima to begin to accelerate its recovery, since it grew 5.2% last December, although it is still below from its previous levels (-3%).

Meanwhile, employment in the rest of the country had an expansion of 4.8% in the last month of 2021 compared to 2020. In addition, in the accumulated January-December, it is 5.2% above 2019, highlighted the BCRP.