According to the Colombian National Department of Statistics (Dane), the business services sector grew by 11.1% in April to June 2015 compared to the same period during 2014 and has created over 170,000 new jobs.

The business services sector has also been the greatest contributor to the increase of the employment rate in the country. Out of the 2.8% increase in the employment rate, 0.8% belong to the business services industry.

Within this sector, the activities known as non-previously classified business activities, had a 17.6% increase rate during the second quarter of 2015, compared to the same period in 2014. These activities include staffing and recruiting industry, research, security and cleaning services, among others.

Acoset, the Colombian association of staffing companies, stated that there were 516,380 temporary workers hired during the first semester of 2015, which accounts for 5.7% of the entire formal market workers on a national level. This shows an increase of 51,409 workers when compared to the second semester of 2014. These temporary workers are under formal working conditions, with social security and legal protection.

Martin Padulla, MD of staffingamericalatina stated that “the situation in Colombia is rather interesting as, even though growth expectation and the oil price have gone down, employment continues to rise in the country. The coffee, flowers and tourism industries seem to have benefited from the devaluation”.

“It is rather gratifying to observe the impact the staffing industry has in the creation of formal employment, contributing to achieve one of the highest employment rates in the past 15 years in Colombia”, added Padulla.