More women join Chile’s mining sector – report

Staff Writer | May 8, 2022 | 10:59 am News South America Copper Lithium 
More women join Chile’s mining sector - report
(Image by Chile’s National Mining Society SONAMI).

The number of women working in Chile’s mining sector grew by 40% in the past 12 months, according to a new report by the National Mining Society (Sonami).

The document points out that about 33,000 women are occupied in mining-related jobs, up from the 23,500 that were working in the industry last year. 

“This is a record figure that represents 12.7% of the mining jobs,” the dossier reads. “Male employment, on the other hand, grew by 18% or the equivalent to 34,400 new jobs.”   

Overall, mining jobs in the world’s top copper producer rose by 20.5% in the past 12 months, for a total of 259,000 workers.

“This means that 44,000 job positions were added within a year, while nationwide employment only grew by 8% during the same period,” Álvaro Merino, research manager at Sonami, pointed out in the report. “This is the highest level of employment in the mining sector registered since December 2014.”

Jobs in other industries such as construction, trade, transportation and manufacturing also saw an increase, while the agricultural, financial and insurance sectors experienced some job losses. 

Merino also mentioned that Chile’s unemployment rate fell from 10.4% to 7.8% in the past 12 months, while in the mining regions it fell from 10.2% to 8.7%.

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