Chile unemployment climbs to 9.4% as regions struggle and AI raises new job concerns

Chile's National Institute of Statistics (INE) reported that the unemployment rate rose to 9.4% in the March‑May quarter, the highest level since 2021. The increase is uneven across regions: Maule saw the sharpest rise, up 2.7 percentage points, while O’Higgins suffered job losses from a mining slowdown, Valparaíso's rate approached 10.3%, and Biobío recorded a second consecutive period at 9.8%.

Formal employment fell while informal jobs continued to grow, prompting the Mesa de Reactivación Laboral to submit a 22‑point roadmap to the government. Legal scholar Pedro Matamala warned that many proposals focus on structural reforms rather than immediate re‑activation, and that regulatory and fiscal constraints could limit their effectiveness.

At the same time, business leaders and the Central Bank of Chile are flagging the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence as a potential accelerator of job displacement. The Bank's monetary policy reports note that AI and automation are already reshaping firm‑level staffing, and it plans to update its analysis in the upcoming September IPOM. Internationally, Oracle's recent layoff of 21,000 workers due to AI adoption adds weight to local concerns about technology‑driven unemployment.