Brazil’s falling unemployment rate is nationwide trend

As The Brazilian Report showed in late July, the country’s unemployment rate fell to 9.3 percent in Q2 2022, hitting its lowest level in seven years. Today, further detail from national statistics bureau IBGE shows that the trend is nationwide: with 22 states seeing unemployment rates fall over the period, and the remaining five staying stable.

In the yearly comparison, with Q2 2021, all 27 states have seen unemployment levels fall.

While Brazil’s Northeast is home to the highest joblessness rates, it also saw some of the biggest improvements in this year’s second quarter. Unemployment in the state of Pernambuco, for instance, fell 3.5 percentage points over the three-month period. Similar drops were seen in its neighboring states of Alagoas and Piauí.

Worrying, however, is that the average monthly earnings around the country remained stagnant between this year’s first and second quarters — and worse, the average BRL 2,652 (USD 519.53) per month is 5.1 percent lower than the same period one year ago, made all the worse considering inflation for that period is in the double digits.

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