MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Unemployment in Brazil matches record lows

Actual wages also rose after two years of stagnation or decline, the IBGE report showed

Unemployment in Brazil continues to fall, hitting record lows, according to a report released Wednesday by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

The National Household Sample Survey (Pnad) showed unemployment closed the quarter ending in July of 2022 at 9.1%, a 1.4% below the quarter ending in April. The index was the lowest in a long while and matched that from December of 2015.

The number of Brazilians holding a job totaled 98.7 million, a new record since the beginning of the measurements in 2012. However, the number of working-age people holding jobs fell by 1.1% to 57% in the quarterly comparison. Compared to the quarter ending a year before, the drop was 4.1%

Household Sample Surveys Coordinator Adriana Beringuy explained that the drop in unemployment was influenced by the activities of commerce and repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, which registered an increase of 692,000 people (3.7%) in the quarterly comparison. And the public administration, defense, social security, education, health, and social services rose 3.9%, with 648,000 new positions.

“These two activities, in fact, were the highlights, but it is worth noting that no group of economic activity showed a loss of employment. In other words, all the sectors added people to the labor market,” Beringuy said.

In the annual comparison, only agriculture, livestock, forestry, fishing, and aquaculture did not show an increase in the number of people employed.

According to the IBGE, the number of workers without a formal contract in the private sector hit a new record with an increase of 4.8% from April, reaching 13.1 million people, while informality stood at 39.8% of the working population, (39.3 million people), against 40% in the previous quarter, while 64.7 million people were cast aside the country's labor force.

Meanwhile, job discouragement (those neither employed nor looking for work), fell by 5%, reaching 4.2 million people. In the year-on-year comparison, the drop reached 19.8%, which represents 1 million fewer people.

The IBGE also pointed out that the number of household workers grew 4.4% compared to the previous quarter (5.9 million people), while the number of employers reached 4.3 million people (+ 3.9%).

The number of formal workers in the private sector rose 1.6% in the quarter and stood at 35.8 million people. The number of self-employed people was 25.9 million, which means a growth of 1.3%. The number of employees in the public sector totaled 12 million, an increase of 4.7% in the quarter.

Actual wages also rose after two years of stagnation or decline, earnings now reaching R$ 2,693 (around US$ 518) in the quarter ending in July. Beringuy explained that the increase was 2.9% against the previous quarter, although 2.9% below the same period of 2021. “The last time there was significant growth was exactly 2 years ago, in the quarter ending in July of 2020,” she underlined.(Source: Agencia Brasil)