Formal employment in Peru maintained its positive trend in May 2026, growing 4.2% from the same month a year earlier and generating 251,000 new jobs nationwide, the
reported on Monday.
With this result, the country recorded 26 consecutive months of growth in formal employment.
According to the institution, formal private-sector employment grew at a faster pace, rising 5.4% year on year, equivalent to 237,000 new jobs.
This performance was driven mainly by the services, commerce, and agriculture sectors, which together accounted for most of the new hires.
The services sector led employment growth with 98,000 new jobs, followed by commerce (51,000) and agriculture (38,000).
Mining posted strong gains, adding 18,000 formal jobs, followed by construction (17,000) and manufacturing (9,000).
In contrast, fishing was the only sector to record a decline, with 1,000 fewer jobs than in May last year.
In percentage terms, mining posted the strongest growth in formal employment, expanding 13.7%, followed by agriculture (9.5%), construction (7.1%), and commerce (6.7%).
Services also grew 4.3%, while electricity increased 2.6% and manufacturing 1.8%. Meanwhile, fishing contracted 3.6% compared with May 2025.
In absolute terms, the number of formal private-sector jobs increased from 4.348 million in May 2025 to 4.584 million in the same month of 2026.
Of the total, the services sector accounted for 2.358 million formal jobs, followed by commerce (807,000), manufacturing (520,000), and agriculture (442,000).
