Chile’s National Statistics Institute (INE) estimated the unemployment rate for the foreign population at 6.8% in the June–August 2026 rolling quarter, according to the foreign-population bulletin from the National Employment Survey (ENE), released on 2 October. The rate was 1.3 percentage points lower than in the same period a year earlier. This indicator covers a moving three-month period; it is not an August-only result or a count of people who searched for work only during that month. For the same period, the bulletin put the foreign population’s labour-force participation rate at 79.2% and its employment rate at 73.8%. Each rate uses a different population or labour-market denominator and should be read alongside the others.

The bulletin also reported estimated levels: a labour force of 1,092,162 people, 1,017,668 employed, 74,494 unemployed and 287,106 outside the labour force. Of those employed, 312,956 were classified as informally employed. Over twelve months, the labour force fell 2.3%, employment declined 0.9% and unemployment decreased 17.9%; the population outside the labour force increased 14.6%. This composition matters because a lower unemployment rate does not by itself mean that more people found jobs: the labour force contracted more sharply than employment. The rate fell over the year even as the estimated employment level edged down. For that reason, the unemployment rate is best read together with employment and participation measures.

The unemployment rate was 8.3% for women and 5.5% for men. The male rate fell 1.8 percentage points over the year; the male labour force declined 5.8% and employment fell 4.0%. The female rate decreased 0.8 point, while the female labour force grew 1.8% and employment increased 2.7%. Participation rates were 87.4% for men and 71.8% for women; employment rates were 82.6% and 65.9%, respectively. These figures show differing movements beneath the aggregate 6.8% rate. The bulletin also said the number of men outside the labour force rose 17.0% and the number of women rose 13.6%. Those subgroup estimates are components of the survey picture and do not, by themselves, explain the overall change in labour-market participation.

The annual 0.9% decline in employment was attributed to men: male employment fell 4.0%, while female employment rose 2.7%. By economic sector, employment decreased 8.5% in manufacturing, 10.2% in administrative and support services, and 5.3% in health activities. It increased 13.1% in trade, 21.0% in activities of households as employers, and 7.6% in transport. By occupational category, the report recorded a 9.5% fall among private-sector employees, alongside increases of 15.4% among own-account workers, 38.8% in domestic service, and 43.0% among employers. By education, employment among people with higher education fell 11.6%, while secondary education rose 2.4% and primary education rose 8.7%. These are components of the total employment change; they do not measure the causal effect of each category on the wider economy.

The number of informally employed people rose 3.3% year over year to 312,956, and the informal employment rate increased 1.3 percentage points to 30.8%. The rate was 32.0% among women and 29.6% among men, with annual changes of minus 1.4 points and plus 3.4 points, respectively. The number of informally employed men increased 8.6%, while the number of women decreased 1.6%. The bulletin’s analytical indicators also included SU2, which combines unemployment with involuntary part-time work, at 13.3%, and SU3, which combines unemployment with the potential labour force, at 11.5%. These are not equivalent to the standard unemployment rate; they include other forms of underused labour. The supplementary measures underscore that the 6.8% headline does not represent every form of labour underutilisation.

The ENE bulletin operationally defines foreign people as those who are not Chilean by nationality and who meet the survey’s criteria for being interviewed. This group should not be treated as synonymous with everyone born abroad or with every person described as a migrant. INE warns that more detailed breakdowns can have precision problems because fewer sample units remain, and in more critical cases estimates may be biased. It recommends considering its statistical quality standard for household-survey estimates. Education categories use ISCED 2011 beginning with the April–June 2025 rolling quarter; occupational categories are identified as ICSE-93 in the bulletin. The figures are estimates from a national survey, not a census of individuals, so differences for small subgroups should not be read as exact headcounts. These coverage and quality notes set limits on interpretation.

Bulletin No. 59 covers June–August 2026 and was released on 2 October 2026. Its annual comparisons are against the same three-month period one year earlier. Percentages describe rates of change, not differences in numbers of people. A percentage-point movement is the difference between two rates: the reported 1.3-point fall in unemployment is not the same as a 1.3% decline. INE presents these figures as estimates and specifically stresses the need to consider statistical quality. This report relays national indicators for the foreign population; it does not establish results for particular cities, nationalities, work-permit statuses, wages or reasons for migration. A single rolling-quarter result is not, by itself, proof of a long-term trend or a policy effect. Subsequent ENE bulletins can show how comparable periods develop.