Brazil unemployment down to 10.5% in quarter ending in April

Brazil’s unemployment sank 0.7 percentage points in the quarter ending in April compared to the previous quarter, and 4.3 percentage points year-on-year, closing out the period at 10.5 percent. The data can be found in the Continuous PNAD (National Household Sample Survey), published today (May 31) by the country’s statistics agency IBGE.

This is the lowest rate for a quarter ending in April since 2015, when joblessness was 8.1 percent, the agency declared. Employed people reached an all-time high of 96.5 million, the highest in the time series initiated in 2012, up 1.1 percent quarter-on-quarter. The rise amounted to 1.1 million people in the quarter and 9 million employed people in the year.

In April 2021, Brazil was facing the worst period of the COVID-19 pandemic, with deaths exceeding 3 thousand a day.

The unemployed were estimated to total 11.3 million, a 25.3 percent decline year to date. According to the research coordinator, Adriana Beringuy, the shrinkage in joblessness has held steady since the quarter ending in July 2021, with progress in transportation, storage and mail, public istration, defense, social security, education, human health, and social services.

“The group encoming public istration, defense, social security, education, human health, and social services was pushed by growth in education—both public and private. Chief among other services is beauty—hairdressing, manicures, and beauticians.”

The employment rate—the percentage of employed people in the working-age population—was estimated at 55.8 percent, up 0.5 percentage points quarter-on-quarter and 4.8 percentage points compared to the same quarter a year earlier.

The labor force—employed plus unemployed—was estimated to add up 107.9 million, up 0.4 percent from the quarter ending in January and 5.1 percent from the same quarter in 2021. This is the largest amount of people in the labor force in this series.

ed employment

The IBGE reports the increase in the number of employees with a ed job in the private sector to 35.2 million. Quarter-on-quarter, the expansion was two percent, and 11.6 percent year-on-year.

Among the sectors employing the most were trade; motor vehicle and motorcycle repair; and information, communication and financial, real estate, professional and istrative activities.

Workers in the public sector kept steady at 11.5 million people.

Informal employment, in turn, remained stable quarter-on-quarter, down 0.3 percentage points to 40.1 percent of the employed population, amounting to 38.7 million people.

Year-on-year, workers with no ed employment were up 20.8 percent in the private sector, reaching an all-time high 12.5 million. The self-employed rose 7.2 percent year-to-date—25.5 million people.

Underutilization fell 1.4 percentage points in the quarter and stood at 22.5%, totaling 26.1 million people. The population underemployed due to insufficient work hours dropped to 6.6 million, down 5.3 percent from the previous quarter.

The discouraged population (no longer seeking employment, grosso modo) also decreased to 4.5 million people, down 6.4 percent from the previous quarter, and 24.6 percent year-on-year.

Income

According to researcher Adriana Beringuy, the increase in employment was not reflected in the real habitual income, which plunged 7.9 percent in the yearly comparison, standing at BRL 2,569 in the quarter ending in April.

“Despite the increase in formal jobs, no expansion was seen in the average real income of ed employment in the private sector. Also reported was a decline in income in the public sector,” she said.

The real habitual income mass amounted to BRL 242.9 billion, therefore stable year-on-year.