Coronavirus

Bolsonaro: Solving unemployment is “on governors”

Bolsonaro: Solving unemployment is “on the governors”
Jair Bolsonaro inaugurates a field hospital in Goiás. Photo: Alan Santos/PR

President Jair Bolsonaro once again attacked state governors for their social distancing policies. During an interaction with supporters in front of the presidential palace this morning, a woman criticized quarantines implemented by São Paulo Governor João Dória, to which the president said the decision was not up to him. “The Supreme Court has decided that governors and mayors are the ones responsible for this policy, including social isolation,” the president said. “Now there is an enormous unemployment wave ahead of us. Informal and formal workers too. Do not try to put that on me. It is on the governors to solve this problem that is going on in nearly all of Brazil.”

With nearly 5 million jobs lost in Q1 2020, unemployment is skyrocketing in Brazil. Last week, we explained why Covid-19 is killing jobs faster than expected, though we previously warned that the real impact of the pandemic on employment levels has yet to be felt.

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