The unemployment rate in Brazil has dropped significantly for the sixth consecutive rolling quarter. In the three months through November 2022, the rate of workers looking for a job stood at 8.1 percent, the lowest since the end of April 2015, according to official data.
Both the unemployed and employed population continued to break positive records in the quarter. Roughly 8.7 million Brazilian workers were looking for a job in November, down nearly 10 percent from the previous three months and the best figure since June 2015. Meanwhile, the employed population grew 0.7 percent to 99.7 million.
The numbers differ from estimates by the Institute for Applied Economic Research (Ipea) based on population surveys, according to which Brazil has already topped the mark of 100 million employed workers.
“Although the increase in the employed population has been taking place at a slower pace than that seen in previous quarters, it remains significant,” explained Adriana Beringuy, coordinator of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics’s official household survey.
Ms. Beringuy highlights an improvement in the quality of jobs created. Formal positions — which come with labor protections and usually pay more — grew by 2.3 percent. Labor informality has been decreasing in Brazil, albeit at a slow pace, which has a positive impact on average earnings (up by 3 percent at BRL 2,787 per month or USD 547).
Almost 39 percent of the workforce is in the informal economy.
The days for market improvement may be numbered, however, following a trend perceived across Latin America as a whole.
According to the International Labor Organization’s most recent annual report on world labor market trends, due to a sharp downward economic turn, employment growth is expected to slow down between 2023 and 2024 in the region’s main countries, being enough only to offset the growth in the working-age population.
The market expects Brazil’s GDP this year and the next to grow just 0.77 and 1.5 percent, respectively.
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