Employment: 400,000 fewer jobs in Lima than four months ago

There are about 4.9 million people in Metropolitan Lima. Peruvians according to the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (INEI), they worked until October.

Quantity Work this is slightly above pre-pandemic levels, but lower than in previous months. For example, in June the employed population of the capital reached 5.3 million people.

Based on INEI data, consulting firm Thorne & Associates warns that about 400,000 jobs were lost in Lima between June and October.

This, they argue, would indicate a stagnation in job creation in the last few months.

“Usually, employment is a lagging indicator of the economic cycle. The last thing companies do is lay off their workers, and they only do that when the economy is failing. The numbers show that the persistence of the economic downturn is forcing them to cut their staff,” Alfredo Thorn, director of a consulting firm and former economy minister, told the Gestión newspaper.

The data coincides with the fall in GDP reported in the third quarter of the year, between July and August, when the economy’s growth rate halved, rising by just 1.7%. In the first quarter, it grew by 3.8%, and in the second it reached 3.3%.

For Eduardo Jimenez, head of the Macroconsult information system, the fall Work it can also be a seasonal problem that happens every year.

The economist notes that pre-pandemic data show that there is usually an increase in the employed population in the first half of the year, which then slows down in the second half of the year.

Jimenez notes that apart from this reduction in the number of jobs, the main problem in the labor market is the instability of the jobs created.