A study by the Institute of Applied Economic Research (Ipea) shows that absences from the labor market have been declining since the first quarter of 2021. According to the survey, in the fourth quarter of last year, this rate was 1.84%, below the observed in the third quarter (1.99%), second quarter (2.27%) and the first quarter of 2021 (3.31%).
The value was also much lower than the 15.88% in the second quarter of 2020, the height of isolation measures due to covid-19. The rate for the last quarter of 2021 was still the lowest in the pandemic period and was below those recorded in 2019 (pre-pandemic period), which ranged between 2.05% and 3.84%.
The highest percentage of absences in the last quarter of 2021 occurred among statutory and military public servants (3.84%), while the lowest rate was among employers (0.52%).
The proportion between the hours usually worked and those actually worked was 97%, while at the beginning of the pandemic it reached 78%.
Inequality
The country also ended 2021 with a decline in income inequality compared to 2020. According to the IPEA survey, the Gini index reached 0.490 in the fourth quarter of last year. As a result, it was below the 0.507 in the third quarter of 2020, a peak caused by the departure of less skilled workers from the labor market at that time.
