Emanuel de Jesus Sousa Oliveira, 70, lost his job as a biller at a clinic in November 2021. The resident of the capital of São Paulo reports that he would even like to go back to providing some service to supplement his retirement income, but a combination of factors stopped the currently looking for vacancies.
Discouragement with the opportunities available to the elderly and health uncertainties still related to the pandemic are part of this list.
“O The job market for those aged 60 and over is very restricted. I thought it best not to look for anything at the moment”, says the retiree, who worked from home in his last job and would be interested in occupying another remote vacancy.
Oliveira’s case is not an isolated one. Elderly people form the majority of Brazilians who left the job market during the pandemic and did not return, indicate data from the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) compiled by LCA Consultores.
The survey focuses on the population outside the workforce. This group brings together people aged 14 and over who are neither employed nor looking for a job – formal or informal.
In the fourth quarter of 2019, the pre-pandemic period, the population outside the force totaled almost 61.6 million people in the country.
In the first quarter of 2022, with Covid-19 underway, the group was around 6% larger, estimated at 65.5 million.
In other words, there was an increase of almost 3.9 million people during the health crisis. The number is higher than the population projected by IBGE for a state like Mato Grosso (3.6 million).
The institute’s data show cuts by age and indicate that workers aged 60 years and over were responsible for this growth.
In the older age group, the share that was neither working nor looking for a job jumped from almost 22.4 million to 24.9 million between the fourth quarter of 2019 and the first three months of 2022.
The increase was about 2.6 million people, equivalent to an increase of 11.6%.
There was also progress in the two immediately preceding strata during the pandemic: 40 to 59 years old (9.4% increase or 1.3 million more) and 25 to 39 years old (7.3% increase or 628,000 more people). most).
According to analysts, the income obtained from pensions is one of the factors that explain the fact that the population outside the force is traditionally greater among the elderly. But, with the risks associated with the pandemic, the return to the market became more complicated for those who wanted to supplement income.
It is possible that a part will not return to the workforce permanently, points out the economist at LCA Consultores Bruno Imaizumi, responsible for the survey.
“This movement is not exclusive to Brazil. The pandemic made many people rethink their lives. The fear of catching Covid may have made part of the elderly not return to the job market”, he says.
“Furthermore, there is still a prejudice against older workers filling vacancies,” he adds.
Dissatisfied with the job market, Dionísio José da Silva, 72, says that he asked to leave his job as a driver at a company in São Paulo in February this year.
Retired, he says he would need to do “some pout” to supplement his income. However, the search for this type of activity has been affected by health reasons in recent months.
Silva says he was infected by the coronavirus and also caught pneumonia. “It delayed my side,” he reports.
Economist Fábio Pesavento, a professor at ESPM (Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing) in Porto Alegre, argues that part of the economic activities that have been generating jobs in Brazil are primarily aimed at younger professionals. He cites the case of civil construction.
The aging of the population, he adds, also contributes to the increase of the elderly in the share outside the labor force.
“Then an important point arises: with the Social Security reform, people have to work longer. If they can’t find a job, what are they going to do?”, he asks.
Women are majority out of force
The population outside the workforce is made up mostly of women.
On the eve of the pandemic, in the fourth quarter of 2019, the female share in this situation was almost 39.9 million. In the first quarter of 2022, the number stood at 42.3 million, up 6.1%.
The total number of men outside the force was at 21.7 million at the end of 2019. The contingent stood at 23.1 million at the beginning of this year, an increase of 6.6%.
Pnad’s version with mobile quarters even brings more recent results on the labor market. However, it does not allow such great detailing, which is possible in research with traditional quarters.
In the Pnad with mobile quarters, the population of Brazilians outside the workforce was estimated at 64.8 million until May this year, the most recent period with available statistics.
The result represents about 2.8 million more than in the interval until February 2020 (62 million), on the eve of the pandemic.
On the other hand, young people enter the market
The IBGE data analyzed by Imaizumi are part of the Continuous Pnad (Continuous National Household Sample Survey) with traditional quarters – January to March, April to June, July to September and October to December.
The survey also shows differences between older and younger workers. In the second case, the population outside the force is already smaller than in the pre-pandemic.
The number of Brazilians aged between 14 and 17 without work and without looking for a job dropped by 325 thousand people between the fourth quarter of 2019 and the first of 2022. The decrease was 3.2% (from 10.1 million to 9, 8 million).
In the 18-24 age group, the drop was 3.7%. There was a departure of 267 thousand people from the population outside the force, which fell from 7.1 million to 6.9 million.
“The need to recompose the income of families may have had an impact. More young people may have gone to the market because of this”, says Imaizumi.
Economist Vitor Hugo Miro, a professor at the UFC (Federal University of Ceará), follows the same line.
“More young people may have felt the need to supplement their income. We see an increase in their participation rate”, says the professor.
The participation rate corresponds to the percentage of workers in the workforce (employed or unemployed) in relation to the total number of people in the same age group.
From the fourth quarter of 2019 to the first of 2022, this percentage increased from 18.7% to 19.4% in the 14 to 17 age group.
Meanwhile, the participation rate has dropped from 24% to 22% among older people aged 60 and over. The numbers are also from Pnad Contínua and were compiled by Miro.
“Having another source of income, such as a pension, helps a person not have to look for a job”, he points out.
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