Chile launches employment subsidy to fund new hires

Chile's Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, through the National Service for Employment (SENCE), has opened a new hiring subsidy that provides a monthly payment of up to 50 % of the minimum wage for each newly hired worker and up to 60 % for women. The benefit can be received for a maximum of four months and each company may obtain up to 200 subsidies, with the program running until December 2026.

Regional governments will inject 210 billion Chilean pesos (about US$225 million) into the national "Modo Empleo" plan, which aims to create roughly 30 000 new jobs. The private sector, represented by the Confederación de la Producción y del Comercio (CPC), will launch a "cruzada por el empleo" initiative, while the Ministry of Social Development’s FOSIS fund will add another 4 000 positions. To date, about 4 000 applications have been submitted out of a target of 25 000, with 47.2 % of the requests coming from female candidates.