The unemployment rate in Chile reaches 9.6% for the June-August 2026 quarter, the highest in over five years. The country has accumulated 44 months with unemployment above 8% and has destroyed 81,352 jobs in a year.
The Chilean labour market continues to deteriorate. The National Employment Survey from the National Institute of Statistics (INE) for the mobile quarter of June-August 2026 places the unemployment rate at 9.6%, one percentage point higher than in the same period of 2025. This is the highest level since 2021, according to data released by the agency and reported by ecosistemastartup.com.
The Chilean economy lost 81,352 jobs in twelve months, a 0.9% annual decline, and the total number of employed decreased to 9.27 million. The unemployed now total 989,400 people, 113,512 more than a year ago (+13%).
The decline in employment is exclusively formal: it fell by 1.3% year-on-year and marks its sixth consecutive annual decrease. Informal employment, on the other hand, is growing again and has seen ten consecutive increases, although this time it only rose by 0.3%.
"Employment in the country is moving towards precariousness, concentrating its only increases in self-employment and domestic work," says Ignacia Méndez, a researcher at Clapes UC.
By sectors, job destruction is concentrated in information and communications (–16.8%), manufacturing (–7.6%, about 70,000 fewer jobs), public administration (–3.4%), and commerce (–1.1%). Only three sectors are creating jobs: administrative and support services (+8.6%), households as employers (+7.8%), and construction (+3.3%).
The duration of unemployment is also worsening. Those unemployed for between three and five months increased by 24.3% to about 258,000 people, while long-term unemployed (twelve months or more) rose by 21.4% to 187,000. The proportion is higher among women (20.5%) than among men (17.5%).
The number of unemployed individuals with a university degree grew by 15.3% and has seen twelve consecutive increases. Those seeking their first job increased by 23.2%. The average duration of the job search slightly decreased from 8.1 to 7.8 months.
The employment rate remains 2.3 percentage points below the same quarter in 2019, a gap equivalent to about 397,000 people. Chile would need to create nearly 400,000 formal jobs to recover the pre-pandemic level.
In light of this scenario, President José Antonio Kast's government presented the Chile Despega plan on September 28, an employment-focused agenda with four pillars. The first is to accelerate public investment and fast-track projects, with a fiscal injection of 800 billion pesos and instructions to the Ministries of Public Works and Housing to execute 100% of the planned investment for 2026.
The second pillar involves hiring subsidies: 91 billion pesos in 2026 and 2027, focusing on women and youth, through Modo Empleo. The third aims to restore liquidity to companies and suppliers through an advance of 130 billion to the Ministry of Health and a capitalization of up to 300 billion for FOGAPE, which with leverage of up to 13.5 times could support up to 4.05 trillion in credits. The fourth is territorial deployment with local monitoring in municipalities with the highest unemployment.
The plan mobilizes a total of 1.3 trillion pesos and aims to generate more than 100,000 jobs. President Kast acknowledged that "there is no magic wand" and that the recovery of confidence will be gradual.
The employment data arrives at a time of macroeconomic fragility. The IMACEC for August contracted by 1% year-on-year, with mining collapsing by 17.4% due to lower ore grades and adverse weather conditions. The government is also preparing a budget for 2027 marked by austerity.
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