What to know about Ecuador's presidential runoff election

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — In a polarized political landscape, Ecuadorian voters will choose Sunday between an incumbent young millionaire and a leftist lawyer to lead the South American country for the next four years.

President Daniel Noboa and leftist challenger Luisa González will face off in a presidential runoff as Ecuadorians once again try to find a solution to the extortions, killings, kidnappings and other crimes that have accompanied them since the country emerged from the pandemic.

Noboa and González advanced to the runoff after being the top vote-getters in February’s first-round election. He obtained 44.17% of support while she earned 44%.

Sunday’s vote will be a repeat of the October 2023 snap election that earned Noboa a 16-month presidency. It will also test the lasting influence of González’s mentor, former President Rafael Correa.

Here is what to know ahead of the vote:

The persistent violence Ecuador began experiencing four years ago. The spike in crime is tied to the trafficking of cocaine produced in neighboring Colombia and Peru.

Noboa, who took office in November 2023, declared Ecuador to be in a state of “internal armed conflict” in January 2024, allowing him to deploy thousands of soldiers to the streets to combat gangs and to charge people with terrorism counts for alleged ties to organized crime groups. The homicide rate dropped from 46.18 per 100,000 people in 2023 to 38.76 per 100,000 people in 2024.

But despite the decrease, the rate remained far higher than the 6.85 homicides per 100,000 people seen in 2019. Other crimes, such as kidnapping and extortion, have also skyrocketed, making people fearful of leaving their homes. Some of Noboa’s heavy-handed crime fighting tactics have come under scrutiny inside and outside the country for testing the limits of laws and norms of governing.

The crime spike is tied to the trafficking of cocaine produced in neighboring Colombia and Peru.

Despite their opposing political ideology, both candidates have promised tough-on-crime policies, better equipment for law enforcement and international help to fight cartels and local criminal groups.

Voters are also concerned about what is in their wallets.

Only 33.7% of working-aged Ecuadorians were formally employed at the end of last year, according to the country’s Institute of Statistics and Census.

Noboa, a free-market supporter, has promised to create a million jobs in four years by offering incentives to hire young people and modifying the educational system to improve employment opportunities. González, meanwhile, has said she will create 2 million jobs through a strategy that includes increasing spending in public works projects.

Noboa, 37, is an heir to a fortune built on the banana trade. He opened an event organizing company when he was 18 and then joined his father’s Noboa Corp., where he held management positions in the shipping, logistics and commercial areas. His political career began in 2021, when he won a seat in the National Assembly and chaired its Economic Development Commission.

Noboa, like González, was a lawmaker until May 2023, when then-President Guillermo Lasso dissolved the National Assembly, shortening his own mandate as a result and triggering that year’s snap election. Noboa defeated González in the runoff.

González, 47, held various government jobs during the presidency of Correa, who led Ecuador from 2007 through 2017 with free-spending socially conservative policies and grew increasingly authoritarian in his last years as president.

She was unknown to most voters until Correa’s party picked her as its presidential candidate for the snap election.

Much of her support comes from people who long for the low crime and unemployment rates of Correa’s presidency but gloss over his authoritarian tendencies, the huge debt he ran up and the corruption-related sentence handed down to him in absentia in 2020.

Many people who support Noboa say their vote is more a rejection of Correa’s movement than a resounding endorsement of the president’s performance.

More than 13 million people are eligible to vote, which is mandatory for adults up to the age of 65. It is optional for people aged 16 and 17 and over 65. Failure to vote results in a fine of $46.

Electoral authorities have prohibited voters from taking photos of their ballots during this election. The National Electoral Council said it adopted the measure because criminal groups had coerced many voters. Anyone who violates the prohibition faces a maximum fine of $32,000.

Inmates awaiting sentence cast ballots on Thursday.

Incumbent presidential candidate Daniel Noboa speaks at a campaign rally in Guayaquil, Ecuador, Thursday, April 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Cesar Munoz)

Luisa Gonzalez, presidential candidate for the Citizen Revolution party, addresses supporters during a campaign event in Guayaquil, Ecuador, Thursday, April 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Supporters of Luisa Gonzalez, presidential candidate for the Citizen Revolution party, attend a campaign event in Guayaquil, Ecuador, Thursday, April 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Indigenous people arrive at a rally for presidential candidate Luisa Gonzalez in Tixan, Ecuador, Sunday, March 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

A soldier stands guard during a campaign rally for Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa, who is running for re-election, in Pelileo, Ecuador, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa, who is running for re-election, campaigns in Pelileo, Ecuador, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

Incumbent presidential candidate Daniel Noboa speaks at a campaign rally in Quito, Ecuador, Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Carlos Noriega)

Presidential candidate Luisa Gonzalez gives a speech at a rally after receiving support from Indigenous organizations during a rally in Tixan, Ecuador, Sunday, March 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

Luisa Gonzalez, presidential candidate for the Citizen Revolution party, gives a speech at a campaign rally in Quito, Ecuador, Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

Supporters of Luisa Gonzalez, presidential candidate for the Citizen Revolution party, attend a campaign rally in Quito, Ecuador, Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

Supporters of incumbent presidential candidate Daniel Noboa prepare for his closing campaign rally in Guayaquil, Ecuador, Thursday, April 10, 2025. Ecuadoreans go to the polls on April 13 to elect a new president. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

FILES - This combo shows Daniel Noboa, left, at a campaign event in Quito, Ecuador during his first bid for president on Sept. 29, 2023, and Luisa Gonzalez, right, presidential candidate with the Citizen Revolution party, during an interview in Quito, Ecuador on Aug. 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa, Files)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sluggish December hiring concluded a year of weak employment gains that have frustrated job seekers even though layoffs and unemployment have remained low.

Employers added just 50,000 jobs last month, nearly unchanged from a downwardly revised figure of 56,000 in November, the Labor Department said Friday. The unemployment rate slipped to 4.4%, its first decline since June, from 4.5% in November, a figure also revised lower.

The data suggests that businesses are reluctant to add workers even as economic growth has picked up. Many companies hired aggressively after the pandemic and no longer need to fill more jobs. Others have held back due to widespread uncertainty caused by President Donald Trump’s shifting tariff policies, elevated inflation, and the spread of artificial intelligence, which could alter or even replace some jobs.

Still, economists were encouraged by the drop in the unemployment rate, which had risen in the previous four straight reports. It had also alarmed officials at the Federal Reserve, prompting three cuts to the central bank's key interest rate last year. The decline lowered the odds of another rate reduction in January, economists said.

“The labor market looks to have stabilized, but at a slower pace of employment growth,” Blerina Uruci, chief economist at T. Rowe Price, said. There is no urgency for the Fed to cut rates further, for now."

Some Federal Reserve officials are concerned that inflation remains above their target of 2% annual growth, and hasn't improved since 2024. They support keeping rates where they are to combat inflation. Others, however, are more worried that hiring has nearly ground to a halt and have supported lowering borrowing costs to spur spending and growth.

November's job gain was revised slightly lower, from 64,000 to 56,000, while October's now shows a much steeper drop, with a loss of 173,000 positions, down from previous estimates of a 105,000 decline. The government revises the jobs figures as it receives more survey responses from businesses.

The economy has now lost an average of 22,000 jobs a month in the past three months, the government said. A year ago, in December 2024, it had gained 209,000 a month. Most of those losses reflect the purge of government workers by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.

Nearly all the jobs added in December were in the health care and restaurant and hotel industries. Health care added 38,500 jobs, while restaurants and hotels gained 47,000. Governments — mostly at the state and local level — added 13,000.

Manufacturing, construction and retail companies all shed jobs. Retailers cut 25,000 positions, a sign that holiday hiring has been weaker than previous years. Manufacturers have shed jobs every month since April, when Trump announced sweeping tariffs intended to boost manufacturing.

Wall Street and Washington are looking closely at Friday's report as it's the first clean reading on the labor market in three months. The government didn’t issue a report in October because of the six-week government shutdown, and November’s data was distorted by the closure, which lasted until Nov. 12.

The hiring slowdown reflects more than just a reluctance by companies to add jobs. With an aging population and a sharp drop in immigration, the economy doesn't need to create as many jobs as it has in the past to keep the unemployment rate steady. As a result, a gain of 50,000 jobs is not as clear a sign of weakness as it would have been in previous years.

And layoffs are still low, a sign firms aren't rapidly cutting jobs, as typically happens in a recession. The “low-hire, low-fire” job market does mean current workers have some job security, though those without jobs can have a tougher time.

Ernesto Castro, 44, has applied for hundreds of jobs since leaving his last in May. Yet the Los Angeles resident has gotten just three initial interviews, and only one follow-up, after which he heard nothing.

With nearly a decade of experience providing customer support for software companies, Castro expected to find a new job pretty quickly as he did in 2024.

“I should be in a good position,” Castro said. “It’s been awful.”

He worries that more companies are turning to artificial intelligence to help clients learn to use new software. He hears ads from tech companies that urge companies to slash workers that provide the kind of services he has in his previous jobs. His contacts in the industry say that employees are increasingly reluctant to switch jobs amid all the uncertainty, which leaves fewer open jobs for others.

He is now looking into starting his own software company, and is also exploring project management roles.

December’s report caps a year of sluggish hiring, particularly after April's “liberation day” tariff announcement by Trump. The economy generated an average of 111,000 jobs a month in the first three months of 2025. But that pace dropped to just 11,000 in the three months ended in August, before rebounding slightly to 22,000 in November.

Last year, the economy gained just 584,000 jobs, sharply lower than that more than 2 million added in 2024. It's the smallest annual gain since the COVID-19 pandemic decimated the job market in 2020.

Subdued hiring underscores a key conundrum surrounding the economy as it enters 2026: Growth has picked up to healthy levels, yet hiring has weakened noticeably and the unemployment rate has increased in the last four jobs reports.

Most economists expect hiring will accelerate this year as growth remains solid, and Trump's tax cut legislation is expected to produce large tax refunds this spring. Yet economists acknowledge there are other possibilities: Weak job gains could drag down future growth. Or the economy could keep expanding at a healthy clip, while automation and the spread of artificial intelligence reduces the need for more jobs.

Productivity, or output per hour worked, a measure of worker efficiency, has improved in the past three years and jumped nearly 5% in the July-September quarter. That means companies can produce more without adding jobs. Over time, it should also boost worker pay.

Even with such sluggish job gains, the economy has continued to expand, with growth reaching a 4.3% annual rate in last year's July-September quarter, the best in two years. Strong consumer spending helped drive the gain. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta forecasts that growth could slow to a still-solid 2.7% in the final three months of last year.

FILE - A hiring sign is displayed at a grocery store in Northbrook, Ill., Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)