Colombia

1.Series

Title:

Registered unemployment.

Starting year:

1992.

2.Agency making the initial registrations of unemployed persons

Name of the agency:

Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje - SENA (National Apprenticeship Service).

Type of agency:

Public service under a national authority.

Name of the national authority:

Ministerio de Trabajo y Seguridad Social (Ministry of Labour and Social Security).

Location of the local offices making the registrations:

All over the country.

Type of services provided/administered by the agency:

Assisting job-seekers to find jobs;

Assisting job-seekers to establish their own business;

Assisting employers to find workers;

Vocational guidance;

Job-related training;

Other: providing information on the labour market.

Percentage of job-seekers seeking work through the agency:

No record is kept.

3.The following information is registered about a person:

Name;

Sex;

Address of usual residence;

Date of birth;

Citizenship;

Educational/vocational attainment. Links to ISCED have not been established;

Current/past activity status, with four categories distinguished;

Type of work (occupation) of past or present job. Links to ISCO-88 have not been established;

Type of work (occupation) of job sought. Links to ISCO-88 have not been established;

Type of business (industry) of present/previous employer/workplace.

4.Criteria used for inclusion of a person in the registers (R) and/or the statistics of unemployed persons (S):

Being without work (R) and (S);

Seeking work (R) and (S);

Availability for work (R) and (S);

Age (lower limit: 10 years in rural sector and 12 years in urban sector; no upper age limit) (R) and (S);

Citizenship (only Colombians) (R) and (S);

Being resident in the country (R) and (S).

5.Criteria used for exclusion of a person from the registers (R) and/or the statistics of unemployed persons (S):

Death (R) and (S);

Taking up residency abroad (but if the person is inside the country at the date of the survey, he/she is counted) (R) and (S);

Commencement of a (new) job (R) and (S);

Commencement of military service (R) and (S);

Studying or undergoing training (R) and (S).

6.Definition of unemployed persons used for the statistics

Persons in the following situations during the reference week:

1. Visible unemployment: without employment during the reference week, who had taken steps during the last month, and are available for work.

2. Invisible unemployment: without employment during the reference week, who had not taken steps during the last month, but who had taken them during the last 12 months and who had a good reason to be discouraged, and are available for work.

7.Updating of the registers

The registers are updated regularly.

8.Unemployment rates

Statistics from the registers are not used to obtain unemployment rates.

9.Type of statistics of unemployed persons produced

Series 1:

Reference period:

Month.

Frequency of production:

Monthly.

Descriptive variables used:

Sex;

Age;

Educational level;

Occupation;

Industry;

Previous work experience;

Duration of unemployment;

Other (since 2002): length of time spent looking for employment; means used to look for employment; enterprise.

Form of publication:

On paper, for general audience;

On a website: www.sena.gov.co (Since 2002).

Agency responsible for publication:

SENA.

Title and periodicity of the publication(s):

Various reports (monthly and yearly).

Series 2:

Reference period:

Quarter-Half year.

Frequency of production:

Monthly.

Descriptive variables used:

Sex;

Age;

Educational level;

Occupation;

Industry;

Previous work experience;

Duration of unemployment;

Other (since 2002): length of time spent looking for employment; means used to look for employment; enterprise.

Form of publication:

On paper, for general audience;

On a website: www.sena.gov.co (Since 2002).

Agency responsible for publication:

SENA.

Title and periodicity of the publication(s):

Various reports (monthly and yearly).

Series 3:

Year.

Reference period:

Year.

Frequency of production:

Monthly.

Descriptive variables used:

Sex;

Age;

Educational level;

Occupation;

Industry;

Previous work experience;

Duration of unemployment;

Other (since 2002): length of time spent looking for employment; means used to look for employment; enterprise.

Form of publication:

On paper, for general audience;

On a website: www.sena.gov.co (Since 2002).

Agency responsible for publication:

SENA.

Title and periodicity of the publication(s):

Various reports (monthly and yearly).

10.Methodological information about the statistics

Form of release:

On paper, for general audience.

Agency responsible for the release:

Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadísticas - DANE (National Administrative Department of Statistics).

11.Comparisons with unemployment statistics from other sources

Comparisons have been made with unemployment statistics from the labour force survey.

Frequency of the comparisons:

From time to time.

Publication of the methodology/results of the comparisons:

These have been published in the review Indicadores de Mercado Laboral (Indicators of the labour market) and Informe mensual de gestión del sistema de información para el empleo (Monthly report on the administration of the employment information system) SENA, Dirección de Empleo (Employment Department).

12.Major changes since the start of the statistics

There have been no major changes in legislation, capacity of the agency and/or administrative procedures which had a significant influence on the statistics.

However, important modifications will take place in 2002 due to changes in the systematic computerized and virtualized application of the entry mechanism into the labour market.