Unemployment in Brazil falls to 8.1% and reaches the lowest rate in seven years

The unemployment figure in Brazil continued the downward trend and closed at 8.1% between September and November of last year, the lowest percentage since April 2015, according to official data released this Thursday.

Source: AFP

The figures published this Thursday by the national statistics institute (IBGE) bring the sixth consecutive quarterly decline in the unemployment rate.

Some 8.7 million people were seeking employment between September and November 2022 in the largest economy in Latin America, 3.7 million less than a year ago, detailed the IBGE in a statement.

The fall was 0.8% compared to the immediately previous quarter and 3.5% compared to the same quarter of 2021, when unemployment was 11.6%.

According to IBGE data, andn this moving quarter there were 99.7 million employed persons in Brazil, the largest number since the historical series began in 2012.

“Despite the fact that the employed population index increases at a lower rate than in previous quarters, it is significant and contributes to the reduction of unemployment,” said Adriana Beringuy, coordinator of IBGE household sample surveys, quoted in the institute’s statement.

The informality rate decreased slightly to 38.9% compared to the previous quarter: 38.8 million Brazilians They have irregular jobs.

Workers’ real income increased 3% compared to the immediately preceding quarter and 7.1% compared to the same period last year.

Gabriel Couto, an economist at Santander Brasil bank, told AFP that current unemployment represents “greater difficulties” for employers to find labor, pushing for “faster growth in wages.”

Brazil, with 215 million inhabitants, is in a moment of political transition, with the coming to power of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on January 1.

The leftist leader defeated the far-right Jair Bolsonaro, who ruled until December 2022, in the October presidential elections.