Chile recorded an unemployment rate of 9.6% in the June-August rolling quarter, the highest in Latin America and the second highest among the OECD's 38 countries, according to La Tercera. The outlet compared each nation's latest official figures.
The figure is the highest in five years. In addition, jobs were lost for the second consecutive month, meaning fewer people were employed than in the previous period.
In the region, Colombia follows closely at 9.4%. Further behind are Argentina (7.9%), Uruguay (7.2%), Brazil (5.3%), Peru (4.2%), Paraguay (4.1%) and Bolivia (3.4%). Mexico and Ecuador round out the list at 3%.
The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) comprises 38 countries, mostly developed economies, and Chile has been a member since 2010. Its average unemployment rate is 5.9%. Only Spain, at 10%, exceeds Chile. Colombia, which also belongs to the bloc, ranks third.
Next come Finland (9.1%), Sweden (8.5%), France (8.3%) and Turkey (7.8%). At the other end are Japan, at 2.4%, and Denmark and South Korea, at 2.7%. To put that in perspective: in Chile, almost one in ten members of the labor force is looking for work without finding it. In Japan, fewer than three in every hundred are.
Juan Bravo, director of the Economic Context Observatory at Diego Portales University (OCEC-UDP), argues that Chile has diverged from the rest. Between 2010 and 2019, Chilean unemployment averaged 6.9%, compared with 7% in the OECD. Since then, the bloc's trend has been downward and Chile's upward.
That is why Bravo says that "Chile's problem is predominantly domestic." In his view, the economy's weak performance in 2026 deepened an earlier deterioration. He also points to a rise in labor costs that, he says, was not accompanied by an equivalent increase in productivity.
María José Abud, executive director of the Horizontal think tank, describes a mix of cyclical and structural factors. The economy grew by around 1.9% on average over the past four years and, since the pandemic, that growth has generated fewer jobs. Among the causes, she cites labor costs, regulation that is more rigid than average and a market that has not adapted to new forms of work.
Exequiel Cáceres, an economist at Libertad y Desarrollo (LyD), puts labor costs resulting from recent reforms first. Automation and artificial intelligence, he says, are a real but secondary shock, because they also affect neighboring countries with lower unemployment.
Abud highlights a key point. The Central Bank estimates that the unemployment rate consistent with stable inflation, a kind of floor to which the economy returns when it functions normally, has risen over the past decade and is now between 8.2% and 8.8%. That means an economic recovery alone would leave unemployment close to that level.
The three economists agree that structural changes are needed. Abud proposes modernizing severance pay based on years of service, nursery care that does not make hiring women more expensive, greater flexibility and effective training. Cáceres adds more flexibility in calculating the 40-hour workweek and hourly contracts. Bravo expects the employment recovery to take a long time.
