Companies in the trade sector in Brazil needed 3 years to return to pre-COVID-19 pandemic employment levels. This finding is in the Annual Trade Survey, released this Thursday (25), by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).
The survey brings data from 2022, when Brazilian commerce employed 10.3 million people. This number exceeds the number from 2019 by 157.3 thousand, the last year before the pandemic emerged. The peak of the series, which began in 2007, was 10.6 million, in 2014.
“We are far from the historical maximum value, but there was growth, after 2020, in every year, an increase in the number of employed people”, assesses IBGE researcher Marcelo Miranda Freire Melo.
Research was carried out with companies in the retail trade, wholesale trade and trade of vehicles, parts and motorcycles – Rovena Rosa/Agência Brasil
The research is carried out with companies from 22 sectors in three major segments: retail trade, wholesale trade and trade in vehicles, parts and motorcycles.
The institute explains that the difference between retail and wholesale is the destination of the sale. In retail, the purpose is personal and domestic use; while in wholesale, other companies and public administration bodies.
Retail trade is the main driver of worker employment, with 7.6 million jobs in 2022. Wholesale accounts for 1.9 million, the highest in the historical series, and the trade of motor vehicles, parts and motorcycles employs 846.2 thousand.
The segment that employs the most people individually is hypermarkets and supermarkets, with 14.8% of those employed, which is equivalent to 1.5 million people.
GDP Thermometer
The survey identified 1.4 million companies operating at 1.6 million addresses. These companies had net operating revenue of R$6.7 trillion. They presented a gross added value of R$1.1 trillion – this amount represents how much they contributed to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP, the sum of all goods and services produced in the country).
Most of the revenue (51%) was generated by wholesale trade, followed by retail trade (40.2%) and trade in vehicles, parts and motorcycles (8.8%).
The IBGE considers that commercial activity is an important thermometer of the economy, as it “tends to reflect the cycles of economic activities, particularly variations in family income and credit supply conditions”.
Remuneration
Workers in retail companies in 2022 received R$318 billion in salaries – Marcello Casal JrAgency Brazil
The 10.3 million people who worked in retail companies in 2022 received R$318 billion in salaries and other remuneration. The IBGE measures the average salary in the sector in minimum wages. In 2022, the indicator reached two minimum wages, a record in the historical series. Between the beginning of the series and 2021, there was a variation between 1.8 and 1.9 minimum wages.
The explanation for the record was the growth in the average salary paid in the vehicle, parts and motorcycle trade segment, the only one of the three major sectors to see an increase from 2021 to 2022. “This value influences the result of trade as a whole”, points out the IBGE researcher.
Wholesale trade had the highest average salary (2.9 minimum wages) in 2022, followed by the trade of motorcycles, parts and vehicles (2.3) and retail trade (1.7).
Virtual commerce
The increase in virtual commerce occurred in all retail segments – Photo: Joédson Alves/Agência Brasil
The Covid-19 pandemic, which imposed health restrictions across the country, such as social isolation and lockdowns, which caused profound changes in economic activity, is reflected, as the IBGE study makes clear, in the figures for online commerce.
The institute identified an increase in the number of businesses that have adopted online commerce, whether through websites, social networks, apps or WhatsApp. The number went from 1,900 in 2019 to 3,400 in 2022, an increase of 79.2%.
The increase occurred in all retail segments. The survey also reveals that in 2019, 4.7% of retail companies sold online. In 2022, the percentage reached 8%.
Despite more companies adopting virtual commerce, the IBGE found that there was a decline in the percentage of gross retail revenue in the form of online sales in the last year investigated by the survey. In 2019, the level was 5.3%, which reached 9.1% in 2021, before falling to 8.4% in 2022.
According to IBGE researcher Marcelo Melo, last year’s drop is not an indication that online sales have necessarily fallen.
“It is an indication that people have also returned to buying products in person,” he explains.
“Since we are dealing with a percentage of participation, if this percentage falls it does not mean that the activity itself has fallen,” he notes. In Melo’s opinion, online commerce is “a trend that is here to stay.”
Regions
The IBGE’s broad observation of retail companies shows that the Southeast leads the sector in gross resale revenue, number of local units, employed personnel and remunerations. Next come the South, Northeast, Central-West and North regions.
The Southeast represented 50.6% of the employed population in 2022 and 54.6% of the total salaries and other remunerations. At the other end, the North was responsible for 3.5% of the vacancies and 3.2% of the money received by workers.
The Southeast was also the only region with an average salary above the national average of two minimum wages. Retail companies in the region paid 2.1 minimum wages. At the bottom of the ranking was the Northeast, with an average of 1.5 minimum wages. The South recorded an average salary of two minimum wages, above the Center-West (1.9) and the North (1.8).
States
When analyzing the last ten years, the time interval to identify structural changes, according to the IBGE, two Federation Units (UF) experienced notable changes in the ranking of gross resale revenue.
Rio de Janeiro dropped from third place in 2013 to sixth place in 2022, with a 6.2% share, compared to 8.4%. The main reason for this drop was the loss of relevance of the vehicle trade activity.
Researcher Marcelo Melo points out that in recent years Rio de Janeiro has suffered an economic crisis, which could be an explanation for the loss of market share. “This could have an impact on trade in the region,” he says.
At the other extreme, Mato Grosso jumped from 11th to seventh place in the same period. The highlight in the state was wholesale trade.
Researcher Marcelo Melo points out that a change in position in the participation ranking does not necessarily mean that trade in one state is falling and that in another is growing. “This is participation in total. It could mean that one state is growing at a faster rate than others,” he explains.
São Paulo (28.6% share), Minas Gerais (10%), Paraná (8.2%), Rio Grande do Sul (6.8%) and Santa Catarina (6.5%) led the line in 2022.
