Brazil posts yet another strong jobs report

Informal labor has been the main employment driver in Brazil. Photo: Tupungato/Shutterstock

Brazil’s unemployment figures hit their lowest point in nearly seven years, with 9.3 percent of workers still unable to find a job. Today’s reading came a half percentage point below measurements for the quarter ending in May. Just over 10 million people remain out of work today.

Social and administrative services (+4.5%), retail (+3.4%), and the industrial sector (+2.7%) were the best-performing sectors. But the main driver of new employment continues to be the informal sector — which now encompasses 40 percent of Brazil’s active workforce in Brazil.

Since June 2021, Brazil has gained 900,000 self-employed workers and 3.2 million unregistered workers. A report published earlier this year warns of rising labor informality across Latin America, dismantling formal employment and the protections that come with it.

According to the organization, informal employment has accounted for more than 70 percent of job creation since 2020 in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, and Peru. The issue with informal labor is that it often pays less and offers fewer protections to workers.

The average monthly income for workers has remained steady, up by just 1 percent from May figures. But Brazil’s official statistics agency shows a 5-percent drop from a year ago, mirroring what the Labor Ministry flagged earlier this week.