Chilean regions report divergent labor trends in Biobío and Aysén

Recent labor reports from Chile reveal divergent economic trends across the Biobío and Aysén regions for the May-July 2026 period.

In the Biobío region, the occupied population decreased by 2.7%, representing a loss of over 19,000 jobs. Formal private salaried employment fell by 4.7%, with significant declines noted in the manufacturing sector and among professionals, scientists, and intellectuals. Luis Méndez Briones, director of the Biobío Labor Observatory, attributed these losses to a contraction in regional GDP, which dropped from 5.9% in 2023 to 0.8% in 2025.

Conversely, the Aysén region reported a decrease in unemployment, reaching a rate of 4.0%, the lowest in the country. While the overall occupation rate in Aysén fell by 3.3 percentage points to 64.2%, both the unemployment rate and labor informality saw reductions. The report highlighted a significant decrease in female unemployment, which dropped by 2.6 percentage points to 4.5%.