Explaining Brazil #114: Violent effects of Brazil’s job apocalypse

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Since January, Brazil has already lost 1.4 million formal jobs — according to data from the Economy Ministry. Meanwhile, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics reports that a total of almost 13 million people are out of a job. And that doesn’t even count the millions who, due to the pandemic, simply cannot — or will not — look for a job. Besides the obvious problems with that, a group of researchers showed that job loss can drive crime rates up. Way up.

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On this episode:

Diogo Britto is a postdoctoral researcher in economics at Bocconi University, in Italy. He holds a joint Ph.D. degree in Law and Economics at the Universities of Bologna, Hamburg, and Erasmus Rotterdam, a MSc from the University of Bologna and Bachelor from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He is mainly interested in the economics of crime and development economics.
Benjamin Fogel is a regular contributor to The Brazilian Report, he also writes for Jacobin magazine and Africa is a Country. He is conducting a Ph.D. on the history of Brazilian corruption at New York University.

Background reading:

Read Diogo Britto’s research (alongside Paolo Pinotti and Breno Sampaio): The effect of job loss and unemployment insurance on crime in Brazil.
New unemployment figures bring a series of bad results for the Brazilian job market, suggesting the economic woes of the pandemic will persist. Our April 2 episode shows the job apocalypse looming in Brazil.
An entire generation of Brazilians are being directly damaged by the crisis due to missed opportunities in economic development, largely those who entered the labor force and cannot place themselves in a proper position.
Widespread deaths, mass unemployment, and no solutions from the political class paint a grim future for post-Covid-19 Brazil, writes Benjamin Fogel.
The pandemic could ravage already-feeble Brazilian states’ finances, writes José Roberto Castro.

Explaining Brazil is made by:

Gustavo Ribeiro is the editor-in-chief of The Brazilian Report. He has extensive experience covering Brazilian politics. His work has been featured across Brazilian and French media outlets, including Veja, Época, Folha de S.Paulo, Médiapart, and Radio France Internationale.
Euan Marshall is a journalist and translator who has lived in São Paulo, Brazil since 2011. Specializing in Brazilian soccer, politics and the connection between the two, his work has been published in The Telegraph, Al Jazeera, The Independent, among others.

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