In the rolling quarter from June to August 2026, Chile had 356,286 people who had completed higher education and were unemployed. That is 40,938 more than a year earlier, according to a report by the Economic Context Observatory at Diego Portales University (OCEC-UDP).
The information was published by cambio21.cl, citing data reported by La Tercera. The unemployment rate for this group reached 8.3%, one percentage point higher than in the same period of 2025. This marks 12 consecutive months of year-on-year increases, meaning each month is compared with the same month of the previous year.
For comparison, the country's overall unemployment rate in the same quarter was 9.6%. Having a degree still offers somewhat more protection than the average, but that advantage has been shrinking.
These figures come amid an increasingly educated labor force. In 2010, only 21.7% of people available for work had completed higher education. In 2026, that share reached 42.1%, almost double. Since 2025, this group has been the largest in the labor force.
The report divides graduates into two groups. Among university graduates, unemployment rose by one percentage point to 8%. Among graduates of professional institutes and technical training centers, the rate was 8.7%, an increase of 0.7 percentage points.
Young people have been hit hardest. Among graduates under 30, unemployment rose from 13.8% to 15.9% in one year. In the 30 to 44 age group, it rose by 1.5 percentage points. By contrast, among those aged 45 to 59, it fell by 0.6 percentage points, while among those over 60 it rose by just 0.1 percentage points. By sex, the rate for women reached 8.7% and the rate for men 7.8%.
The other problem is qualification-related underemployment. This occurs when someone works in a job requiring less education than they have, such as an engineer driving for a ride-hailing app. Of the 3,956,255 employed people who had completed higher education, 1,522,611 were in that situation. They account for 38.5%, the highest share since June-August 2019.
"Although people in this situation are counted as employed in the statistics, they are not fully employed, because they generate less added value than could be achieved if they performed work matching their educational level," explained Juan Bravo, director of OCEC-UDP.
In net terms, 28,052 jobs held by graduates were lost in one year. Behind that figure are two opposing movements: 85,867 jobs matching their training disappeared, while 57,814 jobs for which they are overqualified were created.
Formal employment also declined. This group lost 47,604 formal jobs, with contracts and social security contributions, while informal employment grew by 19,551. According to the report, the loss of formal employment affects both technical and university graduates, but informal employment increased only among the latter.
The study does not detail the causes of this deterioration. What it does show is that, over the past year, the group that had not completed secondary education was the only one to create formal employment.
