Chilean President Jose Antonio Kast unveiled a $1.3 billion plan on Monday to create more than 100,000 jobs through infrastructure, reconstruction, housing and community projects. The program will mobilize 1.3 trillion Chilean pesos through investment, public works and employment measures, with effects expected to begin over the coming months and continue through 2027. Its measures aim to accelerate public investment, encourage hiring through incentives, improve business liquidity (available cash for operations) by speeding up public payments, and coordinate community projects. Unemployment has stayed above 8% for 43 consecutive months and reached 9.5% in July, the highest level since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. Economic growth has slowed in Chile, a copper-rich country heavily dependent on mineral exports and other natural-resource industries. Kast has called unemployment a major weakness for his government and acknowledged that persistent joblessness has increased public frustration.