Insider

Brazilian unemployment rate stable at 11.1 percent

Brazil's latest unemployment report brought several positives, with the rate of people out of work holding steady at 11.1 percent in March.
The number of workers in the private sector was up 1.1 percent in March. Photo: ESB Professional/Shutterstock

Brazil’s latest unemployment report brought some mixed numbers, with the rate of people out of work holding steady at 11.1 percent in March. Per the country’s official statistics agency, 11.9 million workers are currently unemployed. 

While the numbers interrupted a downward trend, the rate sits almost 4 percentage points below the all-time high of March 2021, when 14.9 percent of the labor force was out of work.

The underemployment rate — that is, of people working fewer hours than they would like and are able to — dropped from 24.3 to 23.2 percent in the three-month period ending in March. Over the past year, the rate decreased by 6.4 points.

Meanwhile, the rate of discouraged workers — those who have given up on finding a job — is down to 4.1 percent. Since March 2021, the number of discouraged workers has shrunk by 22 percent, from 5.9 to 4.6 million.