Politics

Brazil’s billion-dollar public service industry

This is Part 2 of The Brazilian Report’s special series on the Jair Bolsonaro administration’s proposal to reform public service in Brazil

Brazil's million-dollar public service industry
Photo: FrameAngel/Shutterstock

This is Part 2 of The Brazilian Report’s special series on the Jair Bolsonaro administration’s proposal to reform public service in Brazil. Read Part 1Part 3, and Part 4. You can also download an eBook including all four parts at the end of this article.


At the same time the government sent a proposal to reform civil service in the country by slashing spending on salaries and pensions, it also lifted an ordinance restricting the recruitment of new servants — potentially greenlighting thousands of hires. While the move suggests a lack of coordination in the government, in at least one sector it is all smiles after the change: the multi-millionaire civil service examination industry.

A 2008 survey by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) indicated that 43 percent of middle-class Brazilians dreamed of becoming a civil servant — a job that for decades brought with it prestige and, more importantly, higher salaries, and job stability that surpassed anything in the private sector. Before the 1988 Constitution, that dream could be achieved through making the right connections — but Brazil’s Magna Carta made it mandatory that public institutions recruit servants through standardized tests.

As competition grew more intense, an entire industry has flourished around it. During its heyday, back in 2013, it...

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