Unemployment rate ends at 7.3% in October

Unemployment rate in October 2012 stood at 7.3%, a drop of 0.9 percentage points below 8.2% in October 2011, as appears from the monthly report on labor prepared by the Venezuelan National Statistics Institute (INE).

In absolute terms, this accounts for 989,227 jobless. Last year, people out of work amounted to 1,113,631.

Last month, as many as 12,519,285 people had a job, 7,450,427 of which were employed in the formal sector whereas 5,068,858 were in the informal sector.

In a press release, INE president Elías Eljuri extolled a trend towards the consolidation of the sectors, which create most jobs and afford more stability for workers, taking into account the formal-informal labor ratio.

Translated by Conchita Delgado