Service sectors continue to drive creation of formal jobs

Brazil’s formal labor market created 180,005 new jobs in April 2023, bringing the stock of formal employment to more than 43.1 million positions — the highest in the historical series of Caged, a monthly survey by the Labor Ministry that calculates the number of formal jobs created and closed in the country each month. 

The labor market is expected to slow down this year after a robust performance in 2022, affected by economic deceleration and higher borrowing costs. But it hasn’t happened yet.

According to Paula Montagner, the undersecretary of statistics at the Labor Ministry, the slight decrease in the generation of new jobs in April compared to March, when the country had almost 193,000 job openings, is something expected for the period. There is always a slight inflection from one month to another due to movements such as the end of temporary contracts in the service sector or the end of important cycles in agriculture — as was the case this April with the end of the soybean harvest.

Among the activities that generated the most formal job opportunities last month are public administration, education, and social services (38,138 vacancies), information, communication, and financial and administrative activities (31,911), followed by transportation, storage, and mail (16,105), and accommodation and food services (9,170).

In the year, the services sector stands out, adding 434,168 formal jobs between January and April. Civil construction follows with just over 120,000 open positions, ahead of manufacturing (114,590), and agriculture and livestock (41,766).

According to Ms. Montagner, the industrial sector’s performance in April was mainly related to alcohol production, non-hazardous waste collection, and slaughterhouses, whose pace of cattle slaughter increased with the resumption of protein exports to China after a 20-day embargo due to a suspected case of mad cow disease. The ban was lifted at the end of March, influencing slaughterhouse production in the following month.

In agriculture, the coffee harvest and the production of certified seeds helped the sector create jobs in April.

The only sector of the economy with a negative balance of vacancies from January to April 2023 — that is, more positions opened than closed — was commerce, with 5,223 jobs lost. 

As has historically been the case, São Paulo, the country’s most prosperous state, generated the most formal opportunities this year, accounting for 190,100 of the jobs created between January and April. On the other hand, the formal labor market of the northeastern states of Pernambuco, Alagoas, and Paraíba showed a decline, losing more than 10,000 jobs in total.

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