Region gained eight million extra jobs compared to March 2020

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is reporting that job recovery in Latin America and the Caribbean was attained in 2022 after the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Washington, DC-based financial institution says the region registered “a total recovery of jobs in the second half of 2022, reaching levels greater than those observed before the pandemic”.

By September 2022, the economies in the region had gained eight million extra jobs compared to those available in March 2020 when the pandemic hit. 

This was identified as one of the main conclusions of its Labor Market Observatory in its latest report analysing the labour markets of 15 countries in the region. 

According to the IDB, “the study shows an uneven recovery among the different countries and sectors of the economy and highlights the growth of formal employment throughout the year”.

Net employment growth in the last 30 months

Despite the good news, the IDB labour market report emphasizes that net employment growth in the last 30 months is “still slow and that even as 2021’s economic recovery led employment to its peak in November of that year, it slumped again in the first months of 2022. This rise we saw in the third trimester of 2022 means that we barely had an annual growth rate of two per cent in almost 30 months, which only increases the slow improvement we were dragging from previous.

Senior Specialist at the IDB Oliver Azuara observed that “the total job recovery observed in the second half of 2022 is explained by the growth of women’s employment. For the first time in the pandemic, women’s employment recovery “marginally exceeded men’s employment recovery”.

The report stated that the impact of pandemic was harder for disadvantaged groups in the region, mainly affecting younger and informal workers, those with lower education levels, and specially women,

The study points to a growth in formal employment in the second half of the year that surpasses the growth of informal employment, “showing a rise in quality employment, though not at the rate and velocity the region requires”.