January 25, 2007
Venezuela's unemployment rate falls to 8.4 percent

(Bloomberg) - "Venezuela's unemployment rate in December fell to its lowest since at least January 1999 as increased government spending helped to fuel job growth.

Joblessness fell to 8.4 percent in December, an eight-year low, from 8.9 percent in the same month of 2005, the country's national statistics agency said today. The rate was 8.8 percent in November (...)

Soaring oil income has allowed the government to pump money into the economy, funding social projects as well as labour cooperatives and work-training programs, helping to create many of the 574,000 jobs that hit the market in 2006. Plans announced this month to nationalize private ventures, including the country's largest telephone and private power companies, signal a further transition to public labour markets (...)".