The National Statistics and Census Institute (INEC) reports that for the third quarter of 2018, the net labor participation rate was 61.1%, increasing 1.7% over the same period last year. The population in the national labor force was 2.38 million people, with a statistically significant increase of 98 thousand people compared to the third quarter of last year.

The year-on-year increase in national participation was generated mainly by the female population, which increased from 45.5 per cent to 47.8 per cent, while the male population was the same as in the same quarter of 2017 (74.3 per cent). In absolute terms, the male workforce was estimated at 1.45 million and the female workforce at 927,000 (47,000 more women than in the third quarter of 2017).

By area, the urban labor force was estimated at 1.76 million people, with no year-on-year change, while the rural labor force was estimated at 617,000 people, 43,000 more than the third quarter of the previous year. Labor participation in urban areas was 61.5% and 60.0% in rural areas. The increase in rural areas was 3.4 pp. and is statistically significant with respect to the previous year, while in urban areas there was no statistical variation.

See "Continuous Survey of Employment up to the III quarter of 2018".

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After in the III Quarter of 2018 the indicator stood at 10.2%, for the same period this year the unemployment rate rose to 11.4%.

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