President Guillermo Lasso, weeks before the last election, announced – according to the ruling party – three good news. The first related to the record of the lowest unemployment rate. The second, related to the increase of suitable employment; and the third, related to the reduction of the index of poverty and inequality in the country. These figures, for the regime, would express the construction of Ecuador, which is on the way to prosperity.

However, the media, including El País from Spain, highlight what is happening in the Darién jungle: “While in 2021, thousands of Haitians risked death for that dense jungle that separates Colombia from Panama; and in 2022, Venezuelans threw themselves into the hands of coyotes or traders (…); now Ecuadorians en masse are trying to cross the path that has become a cemetery”.

As we can see, these are two descriptions of the same object of analysis, with quite different explanations. Implicit in one approach is the Government’s message, which swears that it has created new jobs for the population, while in the other, the x-ray of unemployment, economic deprivation, and even insecurity is revealed as an additional factor that explains the tragedy of irregular migration.

With 91,990 new jobs and unemployment falling to 3.2%, Ecuador closed 2022, according to the INEC report

Therefore, Mark Twain and Benjamin Disraeli considered the existence of three types of lies, and even more of those used in politics to numerically reinforce interpretations that are not in accordance with the facts. Hence the expression representing “lies, damned lies and statistics”.

As noted, statistics are open to interpretation; however, there is only one reality.

From Carondelet, for example, they welcome that the corresponding employment increased from 33.9% to 36% last year, but what is kept silent is that in the same period the economically active population (EAP) fell by 245,100 people. Meanwhile, the economically inactive population (PEI) increased by 428,142 people. An important segment of this human group encourages irregular migration.

In addition, there is no statement that we still cannot even recover the corresponding employment rates that we had in the pre-pandemic period, in December 2019, which reached 38.8% with an underemployment level of 17.8%, below, in the latter Today’s 19.4% is proven by the official figures that describe this type of informality.

Likewise, gender inequalities remain (even worsen) in terms of access to employment, making -in 2022- men 58.8% and women 41.1% (in December 2021, women made up 42.3%).

In terms of ethnicity, the figures show a decrease in the share of employment for Montubios and Afro-Ecuadorians, with a greater presence of mestizos and a slight improvement for the indigenous population, from 12.7% to 12.9%.

As noted, statistics are open to interpretation; however, there is only one reality. We are still very far from a true economic recovery with the distribution of benefits for the poorest. (OR)