People with a university education and those over 45 take the longest to find work in Chile, according to La Tercera, which analyzed figures from the National Statistics Institute (INE). In the rolling quarter of June-August 2026, an unemployed person took an average of 7.8 months to find a job.
A decade ago, the wait was considerably shorter. In 2014, the average was 4.9 months, and in 2025 it already exceeded 7.5 months. This year, the figure continues to rise: it peaked at 8.1 months in the May-July quarter.
To put that in perspective, if you lost your job in January, the statistics suggest you would only start earning a salary again around August. In 2014, that same search would have ended in late May.
The wait is longer for those with more education. University graduates take 9.3 months on average. People with technical and primary education take 7.6 months, and those with secondary education take 7.3 months. Women wait 8.2 months and men, 7.5.
Age has an even greater impact. People over 65 take 16.1 months, those aged 55 to 65 take 10.8 months, and those aged 45 to 55 take 8.8 months. By contrast, young people aged 15 to 24 find work in 5.1 months. The 25 to 34 and 35 to 44 age groups record 7.3 and 7.2 months.
Among the regions, Valparaíso leads with 10.3 months. It is followed by Los Ríos with 8.6, Ñuble with 8.4 and Atacama with 8.2. The Metropolitan Region matches the national average.
All of this is happening amid a weakened labor market. The unemployment rate reached 9.6% in June-August, its highest level since 2021. Over a year, 81,352 jobs were lost, the second consecutive annual decline in employment.
The unemployed, meaning those who have lost their jobs plus those seeking work for the first time, increased by 13% in twelve months to 989,400 people. This is the highest figure since August-October 2020, during the pandemic, when they numbered 1,003,911.
Michèle Labbé, an academic at the Faculty of Economics, Business and Government at San Sebastián University, attributes the phenomenon to falling investment. According to her, employment grew by 3.1% annually between 1985 and 2013, and that pace slowed to 1.3% between 2014 and 2025. As a result, new demand for workers is insufficient to absorb those entering the market.
Labbé also cites the effects of the pandemic and rising labor costs. She explains that university graduates and people over 50 represent "more expensive jobs", and that when the economy does not grow, those earning higher salaries suffer the most. She adds that private-sector employment, which requires more experience and qualifications, is precisely what has not been created.
Pedro Pizarro, vice president of the Liberty Institute, points to technology. In his view, its introduction in some areas requires adapting skills, something particularly complex for those who had been in a long-term employment relationship and need more training time.
The INE's next unemployment figures, covering the July-September quarter, will show whether the wait to return to work continues to lengthen.
