IBGE maps disaster in female employment in the initial phase of the pandemic

The destruction of salaried jobs in 2020, the initial year of the pandemic, mainly affected women in Brazil.

This is what a survey released this Thursday (23) by the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) indicates.

From 2019 to 2020, the total number of salaried workers in companies and other active organizations shrank by 1.8% in the country, from 46.2 million to 45.4 million. In other words, there was a loss of 825,300 jobs.

Of these closed jobs, 593,600 were filled by women. In other words, they accounted for 71.9% of salaried jobs that were closed in the initial year of the pandemic.

The number of employed workers fell by 2.9% from 2019 to 2020, from 20.7 million to 20.1 million.

As a result, for the first time since 2009 there was a reduction in female participation among employees of formal companies in the country: from 44.8% to 44.3%. It is the lowest percentage since 2016.

Among men, the reduction of jobs was less intense, 0.9%, in 2020. The number of salaried workers fell from 25.5 million to 25.3 million.

This means that men lost 231,700 jobs, equivalent to 28.1% of all vacancies closed at the time.

The data are part of Cempre (Central Register of Companies) statistics 2020. The register assesses the conditions of companies with registered CNPJ.

According to the IBGE, the fact that women were more impacted can be associated with characteristics of the economic sectors in the initial phase of the pandemic.

On the one hand, there was growth in the employed population in some of the branches that historically employ more men, which mitigated the negative impact of the crisis among them.

Meanwhile, segments intensive in female labor suffered a fall.

Construction, for example, registered an increase of 4.3% in the number of salaried employees (80,800 more). The activity consisted mostly of men (90.6%).

On the other hand, the education, accommodation and food sectors and other service activities, whose workforce was affected by the pandemic, were composed mainly of women (66.9%, 55.7% and 52.9%, respectively) .

The segment with the biggest drop in salaried employees was accommodation and food: -19.4% (or less 373.2 thousand).

Other analyst studies have also indicated that, throughout the pandemic, the The shutdown of daycare centers and schools intensified inequalities in the labor market.

The interruption of face-to-face teaching activities may have forced more mothers to stay at home to care for their children.

Other impacts of the pandemic

Cempre also indicated that, in 2020, the number of companies and other organizations active in Brazil grew 3.7% compared to 2019, reaching 5.4 million. The number of partners and owners increased by 4.3%, reaching 7.3 million.

It was the first time in the survey that the drop in the number of salaried employees occurred simultaneously with the expressive increase in the number of companies, says the IBGE.

The movement, according to the institute, may have been driven by laid-off workers who tried to open their own business or by those seeking to compensate for income losses in the pandemic.

Another sign of this is that the number of companies without employees grew by 8.6% (or more than 227,300) in 2020.

The number of companies with employees, on the other hand, decreased in all groups: from one to nine employees (-0.4%), from 10 to 49 employees (-5.3%), from 50 to 250 people (- 2.3%) and more than 250 people (-1%).