Chile’s unemployment rate reached 9.6% in the June–August quarter, its highest reading since May 2021, the National Statistics Institute (INE) reported Wednesday, 30 September. That’s up 1.0 percentage point in 12 months. The seasonally adjusted rate was 9.4%, up 0.1 point from the previous quarter.
Behind the headline number are people. The unemployed population grew 13.0% in a year. Within that, the number of people who lost jobs rose 12.1%, and first-time job seekers climbed 23.2%. Young and new entrants to the workforce are finding the door harder to push open.
Who Is Bearing the Burden
The pain isn’t evenly spread. Women’s unemployment stood at 10.3%, compared with 9.1% for men. In the Santiago Metropolitan Region, the rate hit 9.8%, up 0.9 points in a year. Total employment fell 0.9%, driven by a 1.7% decline among men, while women’s employment rose 0.2%.
The labour force grew just 0.3%. Participation slipped to 61.5%, and the employment rate fell to 55.6%. Total hours worked dropped 2.4% in a year, and the average workweek shortened to 36.4 hours.
Sectors tell their own story. Employment fell 16.8% over 12 months in information and communications, 7.6% in manufacturing and 1.1% in commerce. Formal salaried jobs, the kind that usually carry contracts and social-security coverage, fell 2.9%. Unpaid family work dropped 4.0%. Informal work, meanwhile, made up 26.3% of employment, up 0.3 points, with growth concentrated in transport, administrative and support services, and domestic work.
Above 9% for five straight quarters.
The rate has now stayed above 9% for five consecutive rolling quarters.
A Week of Economic Warning Signs
The jobs data landed in a politically charged week. The government delivered its 2027 budget that week, raising spending by 1.5%, while the finance ministry said it would scrutinize outlays. Industrial production fell 5.7% in August. Copper output dropped 12.8% to its lowest level in about 15 years.
The head of shipping line CSAV said labour reforms were costing US$4 billion. Yet the INE figures show the losses falling hardest on formal, salaried work, and on a workforce where informal jobs are growing.
Workers are pushing back elsewhere. Unions at Antofagasta Minerals’ Centinela mine voted 98.73% in favour of a strike over equal pay and took their protest to Santiago. President José Antonio Kast sent Congress a bill to extend until December a monthly fuel bonus of 100,000 pesos (about US$103) for taxis, shared taxis and school transport. The Senate president ruled that migrant detention reform could return with 29 Senate votes.
What Comes Next
INE’s next reading, for July–September, is due at the end of October. The report said no official forecast accompanied the release. It also said local hiring was slowing, especially in sectors where expatriates often compete for formal jobs.
A weaker job market broadens the candidate pool for employers, the report said, while increasing the importance of checking contracts and social-security enrolment. Foreign-contract remote workers were described as insulated from local hiring but exposed to exchange-rate changes. The dólar observado stood at 972.60 pesos for Thursday, 1 October, compared with 970.46 on Wednesday. Rents and contracts indexed to the UF, which stood at 41,065.38 pesos, adjust with inflation, not the dollar.
Why This Matters: A jobless rate above 9% for five straight rolling quarters isn’t a blip. It’s a sustained squeeze on household income. The drop in formal salaried work, alongside rising informality, means more people may work without the contracts and social-security enrolment the report urges workers to check. Women face higher unemployment than men, and first-time job seekers face a labour market that’s shrinking their options. Policy choices now sit with Congress, the finance ministry and the president: a budget that rises only 1.5%, a temporary fuel bonus that runs until December, and labour disputes like the Centinela strike over equal pay. How those pieces fit together will shape who gets protection while hiring slows. That’s the perspective the numbers invite, and the next INE reading at the end of October will show whether the trend is easing.