LatinNews Daily - 20 May 2024

*Brazil’s national statistics institute (Ibge) has released its latest unemployment figures, showing the regional variation and other data regarding unemployment in the first quarter of this year. The jobless rate stood at 7.9% in Q1, up from 7.4% in Q4 2023 but down from the 8.8% unemployment rate in Q1 2023. Of Brazil’s 26 states, eight registered significant quarterly rises in unemployment, with the highest jobless rate registered in the north-eastern state of Bahia (14.0%), up from 12.7% in the fourth quarter of last year. The unemployment rate in 17 other states and the capital region (‘Distrito Federal’, DF) registered slight increases or decreases, while the northern state of Amapá saw a significant decrease from 14.2% in Q4 2023 to 10.9% in Q1 2024. The Ibge highlighted that Q1 unemployment was higher for women (9.8%) than for men (6.5%). It also noted higher unemployment among people who identify as ‘black’ (preto), with 9.7% unemployment, and as ‘mixed-race’ (pardo), with 9.1%, while the jobless rate among people who identify as ‘white’ (branco) stood at 6.2%.