Unemployment Rate

The Unemployment Rate is the share of the labor force that is without work, available for work and actively seeking employment during a specified reference period. It excludes people who are not actively looking for work, such as discouraged workers or those temporarily outside the labor force; exact criteria may vary across countries. Part of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Latin Macro Watch, this indicator gives researchers, policymakers and journalists a comparable measure of labor-market slack across Latin America and the Caribbean.

Coverage

The series covers 21 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean at annual, monthly and quarterly frequency over the period 1990–2026. Values are reported in percent — including average-of-period, end-of-period and seasonally adjusted variants — with moving-average smoothing (MA3, MA6, MA12).

Sources

Data are compiled by the IDB from national statistical agencies, including INDEC - Argentina, the Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística (DANE) - Colombia, INEGI - Mexico, the Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas (INE) de Chile and the Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada (Brazil). Country notes describe survey-specific methodology; for example, Argentina's series combines historical EPH waves with continuous quarterly EPH data from 2003 onward.

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Format	CSV
Language	en
Country	Argentina Bahamas Trinidad & Tobago Belize Costa Rica Dominican Republic Ecuador Bolivia Brazil Chile Colombia El Salvador Jamaica Mexico Nicaragua Guatemala Guyana Haiti Honduras Panama Uruguay Venezuela Barbados Paraguay Peru Suriname
Data notes	What does the Unemployment Rate measure? It measures the share of the labor force that is without work, available for work and actively seeking employment during a specified reference period. Who is excluded from the rate? It excludes people who are not actively looking for work, such as discouraged workers or those temporarily outside the labor force. Exact criteria may vary across countries. How many countries and what period does it cover? It covers 21 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean at annual, monthly and quarterly frequency over 1990–2026. What units and transformations are available? Values are reported in percent, including average-of-period, end-of-period and seasonally adjusted variants, with moving-average smoothing (MA3, MA6, MA12). Where does the data come from? The IDB compiles the series from national statistical agencies, including INDEC - Argentina, DANE - Colombia, INEGI - Mexico, the Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas (INE) de Chile and the Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada (Brazil). What is the Unemployment Rate used for? It is a core labor-market indicator used to track economic slack, compare conditions across countries and inform monetary, employment and social policy. How do I cite this indicator? Cite as: Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Latin Macro Watch — "Unemployment Rate." data.iadb.org/dataset/latin-macro-watch-dataset.