Labor informality closed 2025 at 55.7% and confirms stagnation in job quality
Colombia has gone two years without major progress in labor informality. Photo: Image generated with Artificial Intelligence - ChatGPT
TL;DR
- Labor informality in Colombia closed 2025 at 55.7%, a figure that has practically not changed from the previous year.
- Over half of the employed population continues to be linked to jobs without social protection, indicating a stagnation in job quality.
- The gap between urban and rural areas is significant, with informality at 42.2% in 13 cities and metropolitan areas, and 83.5% in rural areas.
- Men have a higher rate of informal employment (58.1%) compared to women (52.4%) in the fourth quarter of 2025.
- Informality rates vary by city, with Sincelejo (68.5%), Valledupar (64.8%), and Riohacha (62.6%) having the highest rates, while Bogotá (35.4%), Manizales (36.8%), and Medellín (38.7%) have the lowest.
- The proportion of informal workers is significantly higher in microenterprises (84.5%) compared to small (22.3%), medium (5.8%), and large companies (2.1%).
- The country faces the challenge of transforming job growth into greater formalization, productivity, and effective access to social security.