:quality(85)//cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/SP447Q3WMBG3JP2G7XKASW2MOI.jpg "Metropolitan Lima: more than 30% of workers cannot cover a minimum basket with their income")
In early 2023, the labor market in the capital of Peru it continued to show a slow recovery and with less favorable conditions. This situation has had an impact on purchasing power already the income Lima workers.
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The recorded annual rate of 2.6% shows a slowdown in economic growth, partly explained by the acute social situation that the country is going through, accompanied by shifts in the pandemic.
In the rolling quarter between November 2022 and January 2023, 5.1 million jobs were recorded in the capital. This represented an annual increase of 4.8% and only 3.2% compared to the pre-pandemic period, as revealed by the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (INEI) through the technical report “Situation of the labor market in the metropolis of Lima”.
“Although the quality of work it is slowly recovering, it has not yet reached its pre-pandemic levels. There suitable employment rate was 58.7% this quarter, higher than a year ago (45.3%), but lower than pre-pandemic (62.5%),” he said. he declares. Víctor Fuentes, director of the Peruvian Institute of Economics (IPE).
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In this sense, the underemployed population, that is to say those who work less than 35 hours a week or who, working more hours, earn less than a benchmark minimum – amounted to 2.1 million workers.
“Of this group, 1.6 million are underemployed due to income (32.3% of employment in the metropolis of Lima), i.e. not getting enough income cover a minimum consumption basket“, specified the economist.
With these data, the percentage of workers in Lima with incomes below one basic basket accumulated four consecutive months up. The pace recorded between November and January represents a decline of 12 years, without taking into account the pandemic.
Regarding the labor income, a slow recovery is maintained. The income of an average worker in Lima was $1,803/month during this quarter, according to data analyzed by the PEI.
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“Although this amount is 1.4% higher in real terms than the previous year, it is still 10.1% lower than the pre-pandemic level. This means that the purchasing power of workers in the capital has been reduced by more than S/200 since the start of the pandemic,” Fuentes said.
In detail, the real earned income it is below 2019 levels for both men (-11.5%) and women (-7.3%). “There pay gap between men and women persists: for every S/1 a Lima worker receives on average, a Lima worker earns S/0.75″, the IPE analyst said.
Finally, by age, young workers 14 to 24 year olds continue to be the most affected, registering a 16.9% drop from pre-pandemic levels. This equates to a loss of 154,000 jobs for young people.
On the other hand, the group of 25 to 44 year olds showed a drop of 1.4%, or 32,000 fewer jobs. On the other hand, the number of workers aged 45 and over increased by 24.3% compared to the pre-pandemic period, representing an increase of 223,000 jobs.