Clear Accounts / Growing without employment (and falling while creating employment)

Clear Accounts , the weekly column by Mauricio Galindo, economics editor of EL TIEMPO, offers interesting figures surrounding the news that occurred in the last seven days.

As has become customary when looking at GDP (total economic output), mineral-related activities fell 5 percent in the first quarter compared to a year earlier. Curiously, employment in these activities grew 14.5 percent during that period, according to DANE (National Statistics Institute). Conversely, entertainment and artistic activities—the new star sector—grew 15.5 percent, without creating virtually a single new job. Their employment grew 0.2 percent.

Last year, among the 1,000 largest companies in the country analyzed by Supersociedades, the most profitable were those in the Services sector. Their profits accounted for 13.4 percent of equity. A year earlier, it was the Minerals-Hydrocarbons sector, with 23.5 percent. The least profitable was Commerce, with 7.1 percent . This figure demonstrates the efficiency with which owners' equity is leveraged.

A dollar that fell to 3,975 pesos in a week is a depressed dollar, at its lowest level in almost a year. Five years ago, a dollar at that price was a dollar skyrocketing due to the pandemic panic. On March 12, 2020, it surpassed 3,975 pesos for the first time in history (and, incidentally, 4,000 pesos). A week later, it reached the pandemic high of 4,154 pesos, after levels of 3,400 pesos, which were normal. Everything is relative.

Working-age people in just one city, Shanghai, are nearly half of those in all of Colombia, 45.9 percent; those in New York are equivalent to a third of Colombia. In Sao Paulo, they are 30 percent, while in Paris, they are 20.2 percent , according to data compiled by Visual Capitalist. Bogotá is home to 15 percent of the country's working-age population, meaning those 15 years of age or older.