Unemployment drops to 10.5% and reaches 11.3 million in Brazil

The unemployment rate in Brazil dropped to 10.5% in the quarter ended in April this year, informed the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) this Tuesday (31). It is the lowest mark for the period since 2015 (8.1%), when the country embarked on a period of economic crisis.

In the three immediately preceding months (November 2021 to January 2022), the indicator was at 11.2%.

The new result (10.5%) came below financial market estimates. At the median, analysts consulted by the Bloomberg agency projected a rate of 10.9% until April.

The number of unemployed dropped to 11.3 million in the quarter through April, according to the IBGE. The contingent was at 12 million in the immediately preceding three months.

According to official statistics, the unemployed population gathers those who are out of work and continue to look for new vacancies. Those who do not have a job and are not looking for opportunities do not enter the calculation.

“We are facing the maintenance of the process of retraction of the unemployment rate, which has been taking place since the quarter ended in July 2021, mainly due to the advance of the employed population in recent quarters”, said Adriana Beringuy, coordinator of sample surveys of IBGE households.

The data released by the IBGE are part of the Pnad Contínua (Continuous National Household Sample Survey).

The survey portrays both the formal and informal labor market. That is, they are evaluated from jobs with a formal contract and CNPJ to the popular odd jobs.

Occupancy is record, but income drops 7.9% in one year

The number of people employed with some type of work was estimated at approximately 96.5 million, a record in the historical series, which began in 2012. There was a 1.1% increase compared to the previous quarter (1.1 million more people).

After the shock generated by the pandemic, the job market is trying to recover in Brazil. According to Pnad, the number of unemployed reached 15 million at the beginning of 2021, as a result of the health crisis.

With the lifting of restrictions and the reopening of the economy, there was a process of returning to work, and unemployment began to decline over the past year.

The reopening of vacancies, however, was marked by a sequence of falls in the average income of workers.

Soaring inflation, informal return to the market and creation of jobs with lower wages are explanations associated with leaner income.

In the quarter through April, the population’s average income from work was R$2,569. There was even relative stability compared to the immediately previous quarter (R$ 2,566), but the indicator remains weak compared to other periods in the historical series, which began in 2012.

In the annual comparison, with the quarter ended in April 2021 (R$ 2,790), the yield shrank 7.9%.