Economy
Venezuela's unemployment rate climbed in October to 8.1 percent. This means that 1.070,218 people were unemployed last month.

Official data provided by the National Statistics Institute (INE) showed that in the last twelve months, 214,813 people were laid off. In October 2008, the unemployment rate was 6.7 percent, 1.4 percentage points lower than in October 2009, according to the Venezuelan Workforce Monthly Report submitted by the agency.

Increased unemployment has particularly affected women. While in the case of men the jobless rate is 7.5 percent, slightly below the overall average, the unemployment rate among women in October 2009 is 9.1 percent.

Meanwhile, the president of INE, Elias Eljuri, said that the results "support our analysis that the labor market has stabilized throughout the year."