LA PAZ, July 29 (Xinhua) -- Bolivia reduced its unemployment rate from 8.1 percent in 2005 to 4.48 percent in 2017, the lowest figure in Latin America, the government said on Sunday.

Bolivia boasted the region's lowest urban unemployment rate -- 4.2 percent among men and 4.9 percent among women -- with other countries registering rates above 6 percent, said Santiago Farjat, the head of Bolivia's National Statistics Institute (INE). < Some "41 percent of the working population earns a salary, 48.9 percent doesn't earn a salary and 10 percent receives no pay," Farjat told reporters.

Regionally, the countries with the highest unemployment rates in 2017 were Brazil with 11.8 percent, Colombia with 9.6 percent, Uruguay with 7.6 percent and Argentina with 7.2 percent, according to the INE.

Bolivia has a population of 10.88 million, with some 6.2 million living in urban areas. Its main job generators are the hospitality and restaurant industries.

Construction and manufacturing rank the second and third in terms of job creation.

According to a study by the International Monetary Fund, 62.3 percent of jobs in Bolivia are in the informal sector, but Bolivia's Economy Ministry has questioned the agency's methodology.??