Precarious work still affects four out of 10 Peruvians in Lima.

AT Metropolitan of Limawhere a third of the Peruvian population is concentrated, 5 million people have jobs, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics.

Over the past three months, the number workers in the capital it continued to rise, but four out of 10 were part-time workers with few hours and low wages. Victor Fuentes, head of the economic research department at the Peruvian Institute of Economics, notes that the recovery in employment has become precarious.

“Breaking down official employment allows us to see that young people were one of the groups most affected by the pandemic. According to the electronic payroll, 2.6 million young people aged 18 to 29 work in cities. The mentioned rate of informal employment of urban youth reached its highest level in the last 12 years in 2021, 77.3%, although it decreased to 74.8% by the first half of 2022, but still much higher than what was observed in 2019 year,” he said. RPP.

Experts note that the transitions between workplaces formal and informal are very limited. Even Central Reserve Bank (BCR) data shows that the lowest level of official job creation in 17 months was recorded in September.

Taking into account employment at the national level, INEI indicates that up to the middle of the year, about eight out of 10 Peruvians worked in the informal sector. Economist and Grade researcher Miguel Jaramillo argues that in terms of formal employment, the country has rolled back eight years.

“Decent employment is 14% below pre-pandemic levels, informal employment is already above pre-pandemic levels. Formal employment at the level of eight years ago, it seems to me that the context labor policy does not contribute to the formation of official employment, the responsibility lies with the state,” he said.

At the national level, the average salary is 1,525 soles per month, and only in Lima this income is 1,770, but can be much less depending on education and field of activity.

It can even be seen that in the capital there are about one and a half million Peruvians their wages are less than the legal minimum of 1,025 soles. Economist Macroconsult Eduardo Jimenez notes that in the short term the situation will not improve.

“Wages in metropolitan Lima are almost 14% below their pre-pandemic levels. This job instability still persists and, worse, it is likely that it will continue in the coming months and possibly years, because the growth of the economy is at a fairly low level. With low growth, it is very unlikely that the previous labor market situation will recover and that we will continue to improve on the little we have continued to do,” he commented.

Experts also warn that salaries are not improving because companies that demand more workers skilled workers have not yet regained the level of employment they had in 2019.

The stagnation of low wages means a strong impact on families in the face of rising prices, especially when you consider that the basic family basket costs more than 1,500 sols for just a household of four.