Labor Force Participation Rate

The labor force participation rate is the share of the working-age population that is either employed or actively seeking employment during a given period. It is a core labor-market indicator for understanding how much of the potential workforce is economically active, and it underpins analysis of employment, unemployment and economic activity. This Latin Macro Watch indicator, published by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) on data.iadb.org, assembles comparable participation-rate series for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Coverage

The indicator covers 14 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean at annual, monthly and quarterly frequency over the period 1990–2026. Values are expressed in percent, with average-of-period and end-of-period variants, and standard moving-average transformations (MA3, MA6, MA12) are available. For Argentina, the series is computed from INDEC's urban EPH, combining historical survey waves up to 2002 with continuous EPH data from 2003 onward, and excludes 2015Q4 and 2016Q1 because INDEC did not publish data for those periods.

Sources

Figures are drawn from national statistical agencies, including INDEC - Argentina, INEGI - Mexico, the Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística (DANE) - Colombia, the Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas (INE) de Chile and the Statistical Institute of Jamaica, among others. IDB harmonizes these national sources to enable cross-country comparison of labor-market participation.

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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 Labor Force Participation Rate measure? It measures the share of the working-age population that is either employed or actively looking for work during a given period, indicating how much of the potential workforce is economically active. How many countries and which frequencies and period are covered? The indicator covers 14 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean at annual, monthly and quarterly frequency, spanning 1990–2026. What units and transformations are available? The rate is expressed in percent, with average-of-period and end-of-period variants, plus standard moving-average transformations (MA3, MA6, MA12). Where does the data come from? Data are drawn from national statistical agencies, including INDEC - Argentina, INEGI - Mexico, the Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística (DANE) - Colombia, the Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas (INE) de Chile and the Statistical Institute of Jamaica, then harmonized by the IDB. Why are some Argentine periods missing? For Argentina the series is computed from INDEC's urban EPH, combining historical survey waves up to 2002 with continuous EPH data from 2003 onward; 2015Q4 and 2016Q1 are excluded because INDEC did not publish data for those periods. How do I cite this indicator? Cite it as: Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Latin Macro Watch — "Labor Force Participation Rate". data.iadb.org/dataset/latin-macro-watch-dataset.