Unemployment rate at 7.3% for September-November trimester

To see international photos, click here

SANTIAGO.- The unemployment rate for the September-November trimester reached 7.3%. The National Statistics Institute (INE) stated today that this figure indicates a fall of 0.4% when compared to the same trimester in 2006.

Unemployment is 0.1% below market estimates, which predicted an unemployment rate of 7.4% for the September-November trimester.

According to the INE, the rise in the unemployment rate is due to the large increase in the labor force: it shot up 2.7% in twelve months (its greatest increase since the September-November trimester of 2005).  This increase was more than that of employment (1.9%), which registered a total of 120,110 new jobs during the same time frame.

The director of studies for Liberty and Development Institute, Tomás Flores, explained that the figure can be attributed to "the low economic growth in the third trimester, which also can explain the low growth in the number of people employed compared to previous months".

The report issued by the INE also indicated that the female labor force has registered its largest increase since mid-2005, rising 5.3% in twelve months.