Economy & Business - January 2022

BRAZIL | Unemployment improves, remains high. Brazil’s national statistics institute (Ibge) released the latest figures for unemployment on 28 December 2021, which show that the labour market continues to recover in Brazil. The unemployment rate stood at 12.1% in the rolling quarter ending in October 2021. While an improvement on the 13.7% unemployment rate recorded in the May-July rolling quarter, it remains high, with 12.9m Brazilians still in search of work. A further 29.9m are under-employed (working insufficient hours, for example). The employed population grew to 94m in the August-October rolling quarter, equivalent to a 54.6% employment rate. Employment has increased in the formal private sector (12m people, up 9.5% on the May-July quarter); amongst the self-employed (25.6m, up 2.6%); and amongst domestic workers (5.5m, up 7.8%). In terms of sectors, the retail sector, industrial sector, and hospitality & food all saw an increase in employment. The informality rate has risen by 0.5 percentage points to 40.7%, equivalent to 38.2m people. “Although there has been a significant increase in employment, the mass of income remains stable. This is because a worker’s salary has been shrinking – either because employment is growing in lower-paid positions, or because of the advance of inflation in recent months,” Adriana Beringuy, Ibge research coordinator, noted.

End of preview - This article contains approximately 359 words.

Subscribers: Log in now to read the full article

Not a Subscriber?

Choose from one of the following options

• Subscribe
• Sign up for a one-time, 14-day trial