Self-employment with CNPJ grows 36% among black and brown women

Within two years, self-employed work with CNPJ advanced more among black and brown women in Brazil. This is indicated by a study by researcher Janaína Feijó, from FGV Ibre (Brazilian Institute of Economics of the Getulio Vargas Foundation).

According to the survey, 674.6 thousand black and brown women worked independently and with formal registration in the third quarter of 2019, the pre-pandemic period.

In the third quarter of 2021, the number rose to almost 921 thousand, the highest in a historical series started in 2015. This means that, in the interval, there was an increase of 36.5%.

The advancement of self-employed work with CNPJ did not only occur among black and brown women, but it was the most intense, in percentage terms, among the four groups surveyed.

Despite the growth, they still represent the smallest share in relation to the total of self-employed with formal registration, estimated at 6.2 million in the third quarter of 2021. Black and brown women correspond to 14.8% of the group.

The number of white women acting in this way rose 28.6% between the third quarter of 2019 and the same period of 2021, to 1.4 million. The brand is equivalent to 23% of the self-employed with CNPJ.

Black and brown men, on the other hand, increased 25.9%, to 1.6 million (25.3% of the total). Among white men, the advance was 23.4% to 2.3 million (36.7% of the total).

The study uses microdata from the PNAD Contínua (Continuous National Household Sample Survey), released by the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics).

According to Janaína, the strong advance among black and brown women can be considered positive if compared to the conditions faced by self-employed professionals without a CNPJ in the country. This is because, according to PNAD microdata, self-employed with formal registration have, on average, higher levels of education and income compared to the group that works without a CNPJ.

“Self-employed work without CNPJ brings together many people who do temporary jobs and so-called odd jobs”, says the economist.

“The group with CNPJ, on the other hand, has individual micro-entrepreneurs, who may be looking to develop their own businesses, in addition to people who were fired and resorted to the so-called pejotization to be able to provide services to companies”, he completes.

The number of 6.2 million formal self-employed workers with CNPJ, verified in the third quarter of this year, is the highest in the historical series started in 2015. However, it remains far from the total of self-employed professionals without registration.

In the third quarter of this year, self-employed workers who worked informally totaled 19.2 million people in the country.

The contingent is 0.2% below the third quarter of 2019 (19.3 million), the pre-pandemic period.

Among the informal, the majority is composed of black and brown men (7.8 million or 40.6%), followed by white men (4.9 million or 25.5%), black and brown women (3.6 million or 18.9%) and white women (2.8 million or 14.4%).

“This large volume of those without CNPJ brings back the discussion about the situation of vulnerability of jobs in Brazil, as these workers do not have social protection, are often in unfavorable socioeconomic contexts and are more susceptible to fluctuations in the economy”, he points out the study signed by Janaína.

Administrator Sônia Lesse, 36, reports that she has been self-employed since 2012. She started without a CNPJ and sought formalization two years later, in 2014, to be able to provide services to companies.

Currently, she works as a consultant in the area of ​​people development and mainly serves other black women seeking insertion in the labor market.

According to Sonia, the movement towards greater formalization is noticeable among the professionals. However, many black women still suffer from difficulties in entering the market, and self-employment ends up becoming a viable option, according to the consultant.

“The professionals need to prove that they exist to provide services and, therefore, they seek formalization. But the main reason that drives them to undertake is still the lack of opportunities in the job market”, he assesses.

“We, black women, deal a lot with machismo and racism. This prevents career advancement”, she adds.

Cintia Felix, 35, is part of the group of black women who decided to act on their own. In 2015, she left her job at a fashion company in bankruptcy and had to look for a new professional path.

Initially, Cintia did not think about being autonomous, but says she saw a market opportunity. At the time, he decided to bet on his own sustainable clothing brand.

Since then, the business has advanced. Cintia seeks, for example, the support of a network of seamstresses to manufacture the pieces.

“I didn’t want to have a business, but I saw an opportunity that other people weren’t seeing,” recalls the entrepreneur, who left Rio two years ago and moved to São Paulo due to work.

Founder of the Black Money Movement, Alan Soares assesses that the Brazilian economy has been going through a series of transformations due to the advancement of technological platforms in different sectors.

This scenario, he says, has an impact on the labor market, and modalities such as the self-employed gain strength. The result, he concludes, is a large mass of informal professionals.

“The platform economy has pushed more people into the informal market.”

In the third quarter of 2021, the total number of self-employed workers, with and without CNPJ, reached 25.5 million in Brazil. It is the highest level in the IBGE’s historical series, started in 2012. The institute began to detail whether or not workers have CNPJ as of the end of 2015.