Explaining Brazil #156: The future of work in Brazil

When the coronavirus pandemic hit, remote work became the go-to solution for companies. At first, it seemed a terrific way to circumvent the crisis and continue production while we waited for vaccines. And the results are difficult to dispute: despite a few outliers, countries with larger shares of their populations working from home generally fared better economically throughout the pandemic.

But in Brazil, the remote work solution was never easy. The country has an extremely informal economy, and tens of millions simply had to keep leaving their home to work, even during the strictest coronavirus restrictions. 

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Guest:

• João Paulo Cunha is a Market Research Manager at research company Instituto Locomotiva. He is a professor at the FIA Business School in São Paulo and holds a Master’s degree in economics and management from Pierre Mendès-France University in Grenoble.

Background reading:

• Remote work is here to stay in Brazil, but the legal implications of this could create uncertainty for employees and companies alike. Brazilian labor courts are not ready to deal with the demands arising from remote work disputes.
• A survey by Mercer shows that 43 percent of Brazilian companies have not established a date to return to their offices after going remote.
• While Brazil is an increasingly online society, lower-income families are being left behind in terms of access, quality, and stability of internet connections.
• Covid-19 widened the education gap between rich and poor students, and the pandemic is set to worsen Brazil’s troubling school dropout rates. The number of “neither-Nor” youth grew during the pandemic.
• Brazilian professionals battling loneliness and productivity issues are connecting online — even with complete strangers — to help each other work.

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• #inequality
• #internet
• #laborReform