FX.co ★ Chile’s Unemployment Rises in January 2026

Chile’s unemployment rate climbed to 8.3% in the November 2025–January 2026 quarter, up from 8.0% in the previous quarter, marking a 0.3 percentage point increase compared with a year earlier. The uptick was driven by a 1.4% expansion in the labor force, which slightly outpaced the 1.2% growth in employment. The number of unemployed individuals rose 4.8%, largely due to an increase in job losers (3.0%) and a sharp rise in first-time job seekers (18.4%). By gender, the unemployment rate for men increased to 8.0%, a gain of 0.8 percentage points, while the rate for women declined to 8.7%, a decrease of 0.4 percentage points. In the Metropolitan Region, unemployment reached 9.0% over the same period, up 0.3 percentage points, driven by a 0.9% increase in the labor force.