*Chile’s national statistics institute (INE) has announced that the unemployment rate stood at 8.5% in the February-April rolling quarter, a 0.2 percentage point drop from the same period of 2023 and from the previous rolling quarter. This marked the second consecutive annual decline, following a drop of 0.1 percentage points in the January-March rolling quarter. The decrease is due to a 3.7% rise in employment outpacing a 3.5% increase in the labour force. The informal employment rate rose to 28.2%, increasing by 0.8 percentage points over the year. Regionally, the Santiago Metropolitan region saw a 9.2% unemployment rate in the February-March rolling quarter, down 0.4 percentage points from the same period of the previous year, with employment growth led by trade, public administration, and professional activities.