Unemployment makes social security solutions imperative in Brazil

Brazil’s economic scenario was already dire, even before the Covid-19 pandemic hit the country. Any expectations of recovery have firmly been put on hold for the time being. Countries around the world, even those with more robust economies than Brazil’s, are now discussing how to strengthen welfare measures to protect groups who have been hit the hardest by the crisis. As Latin America’s largest economy, Brazil will have to be asking the same questions. 

In November 2019, Brazil reformed its pension system, seeking to ward off a potential default on public accounts for the next few years. But with the economic crisis brought on by the pandemic adding to a further deterioration of the default, the problem might come sooner than expected. 

Spiking at the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, unemployment figures in Brazil stabilized at 12.3 percent over the third week of June, according to data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). But that is no reason for celebration. 

As shown by The Brazilian Report, of the total number of out-of-work Brazilians (75.3 million), around one-quarter have simply stopped looking for jobs altogether, discouraged by the pandemic or a lack of opportunities. While the full extent of the Covid-19 impacts on the job market is still...