Unlike Peru, Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) labor markets posted a significant rise in unemployment, a study conducted by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) confirmed.
The joint study titled "Employment Situation in Latin America and the Caribbean" (in Spanish) covers the first half of 2016.
The report addresses Latin America and Caribbean (LAC)'s GDP contraction, estimated at -0.9% this year.
"During the first half of the year, this contraction resulted in a 0.6 percentage point decline in the urban employment rate, which, when coupled with an increase in the participation rate, caused unemployment to rise by 1.6 percentage points compared with the same period last year," the report reads.
ECLAC defines the urban employment rate as the percentage of working-age population that is employed at a certain time.
Likewise, it defines the participation rate as the percentage of working-age population that is either employed or unemployed, excluding people who are outside the labor force such as housewives, students and retirees.
"Although this negative performance has been strongly influenced by the case of Brazil and its heft in the weighted averages, all the other South American countries with available information, except Peru, are also suffering increases in their unemployment rate," ECLAC Executive Secretary Alicia Barcena was quoted as saying by the UN agency.
INEI figures
Peru's unemployment rate has sustained the downward trend so far this year, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (INEI).
The said economic indicator stood at 7.2% in the first quarter of 2016, 7% in the second and 6.5% in the third.
Central America and the Caribbean
According to the document, the regional urban open unemployment rate is expected to stay in the upswing, and to end this year at 8.6%.
Regional unemployment, on average, stood at 7% in 2014 and 7.4% in 2015.
Likewise, the joint report does not project a significant improvement in the region's labor market situation for the second half of 2016.
Employment situation in Latin America and the Caribbean is a twice-yearly report prepared by ECLAC's Economic Development Division and ILO's Office for Latin America's South Cone.
(END) NDP/MDV/JJN/DHT/MVB