Unemployment rate is the lowest since 2015, and the total of employed people in Brazil breaks record

Brasil de Fato

Between April and June this year, Brazil’s unemployment rate was 6.9%. A result as low as this was last recorded in the quarter ending January 2015. In that same period, the number of employed workers in the country broke a record, reaching 101.8 million. The total number of workers in Brazil increased by 1.6% (over 1.6 million people) in the quarter and 3% (more than 2.9 million people) in a year.

Considering the survey data, today’s unemployment rate is half that seen in March 2021, during the Covid-19 pandemic, when it was 14.9%. It is also 1.1 percentage points lower than a year ago, when it stood at 8%, and 1 point lower than in the previous quarter of the year, from January to March. In those three months, unemployment was 7.9%.

The rate was released by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE, in Portuguese) on Wednesday (31). It is calculated by the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (Pnad Contínua, in Portuguese).

“These high numbers of employed people weren’t boosted only this semester. They are the consequence of the cumulative effect of improvements in the job market as a whole,” explained the coordinator of household surveys, Adriana Beringuy.

The unemployed population seeking a job fell to 7.5 million people, the lowest number since February 2015. It represents a 12.5% drop (less than 1.1 million) on the year.

Wages

In the quarter ending in June, the average income of employed workers was BRL 3,214 (US$ 562), up 1.8% in the quarter and 5.8% year-on-year. As a result, the total income amount reached BRL 322.6 billion (over US$ 56.4), a new record in the historical series.

“The increase in income is being driven by the rise in the number of workers in various activities. This widespread increase in many economic activities is very important because it ends up benefiting both workers in higher-income occupations and those with lower incomes,” added Beringuy.

Unemployed and not seeking a job

The so-called “população desalentada” – unemployed people who gave up seeking a job – dropped to 3.3 million, the lowest number since June 2016. It is 9.6% lower (345,000 people) than in the previous quarter, and 11.5% (422,000 people) than a year ago. Therefore, the percentage of this group reached 2.9% of the Brazilian workforce.

For the IBGE’s coordinator of household surveys, “the reduction in the number of people who gave up seeking a job may be related to improved conditions in the labor market as a whole, enabling this contingent to return to the workforce. And since we’re seeing a reduction in the unemployed population, this reduction in ‘desalentados’ is probably being driven by an increase in employment.”

Caged data

On Tuesday (30), the Ministry of Labor announced that Brazil closed June with 201,700 new formal jobs. It was 29.5% higher than the percentage seen in the same month last year.

The data is from the General Register of Employed and Unemployed (Caged, in Portuguese).

In the year to date, the balance was 1.3 million jobs and, in the last 12 months, 1.7 million new registered jobs.