Chile's unemployment rate likely fell to 6.9 percent in the second quarter of 2007, down two percentage points from the same period last year as economic growth picked up, according to a Reuters poll on Monday.
The estimate, the median forecast of seven analysts and economists, would put the jobless rate slightly higher than the 6.7 percent rate registered in the March-May period this year.
Estimates for the April-June period varied between 6.9 and 7.0 percent. "The main news is going to be the strong growth in job creation in June, with around 240,000 new posts, almost two percent more than in the same period last year," said Aldo Lema, chief economist at local brokerage Security.
Unemployment in Chile is running at a 9-year low as the briskly expanding economy continues to create work. The economy has bounced back in 2007 after a relatively uninspiring performance in 2006, when it expanded by 4.0 percent - its slowest rate in three years.
In the first quarter of 2007 growth accelerated to 5.8 percent. The government has predicted expansion of 5.8 percent this year while the central bank sees full-year growth at the top end of its forecast of between 5 and 6 percent.