The level of employment in the labor market grew in the quarter ended in October 2021, but there was a drop in income, according to the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (PNAD Continuous), released today (28) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE ). The employed population totaled 94.0 million people, with growth of 3.6% or 3.3 million people, compared to the previous quarter and compared to the same period in 2020, the increase is 10.2% or 8.7 millions of people.
The drop in real income is 4.6% compared to the previous quarter, going to R$2,449, but compared to the same quarter of 2020, the decrease was 11.1%. On the other hand, the usual real income mass of R$ 225.0 billion did not have statistically significant changes in both comparisons. The data are from the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (PNAD Continuous).
The IBGE estimated the level of employment, which is the percentage of employed people in the working-age population at 54.6%. This means an increase of 1.8 percentage points (pp) compared to the quarter from May to July 2021, when it reached 52.8% and 4.6 pp compared to the same period of the previous year, that is, 50.0 %.
Activities
Six of the ten groups of activities registered growth in occupation compared to the previous period. The general industry rose 4.6%, or 535 thousand people, in civil construction it was 6.5%, or more 456 thousand people, in commerce, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles 6.4%, or 1.1 million more of people, in accommodation and food the index increased by 11.0%, or more than 500 thousand people, in Other Services it was 7.1%, or more than 304 thousand people, and in Domestic Services 7.8%, or more than 401 thousand people.
Nine groups registered a growth in occupation compared to the same moving quarter of 2020. The group agriculture, livestock, forestry, fishing and aquaculture registered an increase of 7.8%, or more than 645 thousand people; that of the general industry of 8.4%, or more 950 people; 19.2% of construction, or over 1.2 million people; 10.9% of trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, or over 1.8 million people; 11.7% of transport, storage and mail, or more than 509 thousand people; of accommodation and food 26.3%, or more than 1.0 million people; information, communication and financial, real estate, professional and administrative activities were 8.4%, or more than 861 thousand people; other services 11.4%, or more than 471 thousand people; and Domestic Services of 21.1%, or over 1 million people.
Informality
Even with the 4.1% increase in the number of employees with a formal contract in the private sector, compared to the previous quarter, the informality rate was 40.7% of the employed population, or 38.2 million informal workers. In the previous quarter, it registered 40.2% and, in the same quarter of 2020, 38.4%.
For IBGE’s Work and Income coordinator, Adriana Beringuy, the survey shows that a kind of generalization of the process of recovery of population and occupied contingents is beginning to be noticed, but informal workers have fewer safeguards to stay out of the market. However, although these people were the most affected from the first impact of the pandemic in 2020 because of social isolation, they were the ones who returned to the market the fastest. “We are faced with two segments of the occupation that are recovering, but each at different times and intensity”.
Performance
The coordinator added that at this first moment there is a recovery of the employed population, but from the point of view of the wage bill and the income generated by this expansion, positive effects cannot yet be observed. “The impact was very big, many people left the market, or left temporarily and now return. Many people offering work, a good part finding only those with lower incomes”, he commented.
According to Adriana Beringuy, work with a portfolio has shown a drop in income, both in the comparison by quarter and in the year. Along with this, informal work also tends to lower income. “All workers, regardless of their way of entering the labor market, have a lower income. Either because the process of absorption of workers itself, employees hired at lower incomes, or because self-employed workers earn a lower income”, he said, adding that there is also the effect of inflation on the fall in income.
“This real income, which is falling, especially in the year, which is 11% down, has an inflationary effect. The loss of income purchasing power is associated with inflation adjustment. It has the effect caused by the labor market, the process of supply and demand for workers, there may be more work supply than demand, therefore, that work ends up receiving less and, in addition, the inflationary process”.
When compared to the previous quarter, none of the groupings of activities presented gains in the average real income as usual and there were still three reductions: general industry (-4.1%), commerce, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (-2.8%). The biggest drop (-7.1%) was in public administration, defense, social security, education, human health and social services. The seven other groups did not show statistically significant variations.
There was also no growth in the income of any group in the annual comparison and, in addition, six of them showed reductions: industry (-16.1%), construction (-7.4%), commerce, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (10, 0%), information, communication and financial, real estate, professional and administrative activities (-9.3%), public administration, defense, social security, education, human health and social services (-11.6%) and domestic services ( -5.1%.
Three positions in the occupation saw their earnings decline quarter-on-quarter. For the employee with a formal contract, the decrease was 3.6%, for the employee without a formal contract, 8.9% and for the employee in the public sector, 5.8%. The other three main positions (domestic worker, employer and self-employed) did not show statistically significant changes.
Compared to the same moving quarter last year, the earnings of the six main occupation positions fell: employee with a formal contract (-8.0%), employee without a formal contract (-11.9%), worker domestic (-5.1%), employed in the public sector (-10.6%), employer (-15.0%) and self-employed workers (-4.0%).
