Unemployment (number of persons)

Unemployment (number of persons) is the total number of individuals without work who are available for and actively seeking employment during a given period. The 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 level (head-count) view of joblessness across Latin America and the Caribbean — complementing the unemployment rate by showing the absolute size of the unemployed population.

Coverage

The series covers 9 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean at annual, monthly and quarterly frequency over the period 1990–2026. Values are expressed in millions of persons (including average-of-period and end-of-period variants), with moving-average smoothing (MA3, MA6, MA12) and quarter-on-quarter (QoQ %) and year-on-year (YoY %) transformations.

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.

Show more

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 Unemployment (number of persons) measure? It measures the total number of individuals without work who are available for and actively seeking employment during a given period, expressed as a head count rather than a rate. How does it differ from the unemployment rate? This indicator reports the absolute number of unemployed persons, while the unemployment rate expresses that figure as a share of the labor force. How many countries and what period does it cover? It covers 9 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean at annual, monthly and quarterly frequency over 1990–2026. What units and transformations are available? Values are expressed in millions of persons, including average-of-period and end-of-period variants, with moving averages (MA3, MA6, MA12) and QoQ % and YoY % changes. 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 this indicator typically used for? It is used to gauge the absolute scale of joblessness, size labor-market slack and inform employment and social policy across the region. How do I cite this indicator? Cite as: Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Latin Macro Watch — "Unemployment (number of persons)." data.iadb.org/dataset/latin-macro-watch-dataset.