Gustavo Petro and Álvaro Uribe confronted over data from Dane: “This government has deceived thousands of citizens”

Colombia has had extra individuals working for the State for 5 years in a row than in factories and manufacturing vegetation. This is proven by the newest data from the National Administrative Department of Statistics (Dane), ending in January 2026.

2.7 million Colombians have jobs in public administration, protection, training and well being, whereas the manufacturing trade – that’s, corporations that produce items reminiscent of meals, textiles, medicines or family home equipment – occupies 2.5 million individuals.

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But what the Dane’s historic information reveal goes past a current picture. The data sequence accessible since January 2016 exhibits that for a number of years each traces had been very shut, with manufacturing even above state employment in some intervals.

It was roughly from 2021 when the general public sector took a bonus that it has not let go of, and that in January 2026 interprets right into a distinction of 200,000 staff.

That hole sparked a public dispute between former President Álvaro Uribe Vélez and President Gustavo Petro.

The former president revealed on his X account that the Government has linked individuals to the general public sector with the intention of acquiring votes, however with out having the sources to maintain these jobs over time. “This Government has deceived thousands of citizens, all with the interest of the vote, but knowing that they are unsustainable positions and contracts; it appoints or hires them without resources to support them”wrote Uribe.

The argument is fiscal, since extra public workers means extra spending. If this expense doesn’t have budgetary help, the State accumulates a debt that eventually should pay, or will merely go away these staff with out wages.

The president didn’t reject the figures, however he did query the studying made of them. In his response in X, Petro identified that each state and industrial employment have grown steadily, and that that is exactly what his government seeks. “Employment in the State and industry is growing permanently and at the highest levels in recent times”he wrote, citing the identical Dane report.

The historic sequence of the group helps not less than half of that assertion. Dane says that since 2016 each curves present a normal upward development, with employment in public administration, defence, training and well being rising from round 2 million individuals to the present 2.7 million, and the manufacturing trade rising from related ranges to the two.5 million recorded in January 2026.

Petro went additional and proposed a thesis: an increasing productive equipment—particularly in agriculture and non-oil trade—can finance a State that ensures rights reminiscent of well being and training. He known as this mannequin the “Welfare State.” According to the president, Stopping public employment below the argument of decreasing spending is a place that he related to neoliberalism, which he identified because the trigger of structural issues.

In addition, the president linked job development to his vitality coverage: he acknowledged that by decreasing dependence on oil, sectors reminiscent of agriculture and manufacturing have gained floor and generated new jobs.

The Dane not solely information that public employment exceeds manufacturing employment. The historic sequence additionally exhibits that each sectors have grown since 2016, though at completely different speeds and with the hole opening extra clearly from 2021.

The dialogue happens whereas Colombia goes via a decade of adjustments in its labor construction. According to Dane, in January 2016 the 2 sectors had nearly an identical numbers of staff. Ten years later, the state employs 200,000 extra individuals than trade, and neither facet of the political debate disputes that quantity.