The unemployment rate in Brazil reached 9.4% in April this year, the lowest level since October 2015, according to a study released this Friday (24) by the Institute of Applied Economic Research (Ipea). Compared to the same month in 2021, the rate fell by 4.9 percentage points. In all, the country had 11 million unemployed in April.
According to Ipea, at the other end, the employed population in April reached 97.8 million workers, the highest level since 2012. In relation to the same period last year, the employed population increased by 10.8% and, in comparison with last March, there was a rise of 2.1%. According to Ipea, data analysis shows that the expansion of occupation has occurred in a generalized way, involving all regions, all age and educational segments and reaching all sectors of the economy.
Ipea highlights the recovery in the sectors that had the most intense drops at the height of the pandemic, due to social distancing measures. In the first quarter of this year, 6 of the 13 sectors surveyed showed occupancy growth of more than 10%, with emphasis on the accommodation and food sectors, with an increase of 32.5% in the occupancy rate; personal services, up 19.5%; and domestic services, with growth of 19.4%.
The data show, however, that there are still a number of challenges to be overcome in the Brazilian labor market. Even in the face of a stronger recovery in formal employment, most of the new vacancies are being generated in the informal segments of the economy. In the last mobile quarter, ended in April 2022, while the number of workers with a formal contract increased 11.6%, compared to 2021, the number of employed without a formal contract grew 20.8%.
despondency in fall
The country still has approximately 4.2 million despondent people. Discouragement refers to those people who would like to work, but do not look for a job because they think they will not find it. The number registered in April is, however, the lowest since September 2017. The proportion of those who are discouraged in relation to the population outside the workforce dropped from 5.1% to 3.7%, between April 2021 and April of 2022.
There were 6.4 million workers who declared themselves underemployed in April, that is, 6.5% of the total employment. Underemployed workers are those who work less than 40 hours a week, having availability and wishing to work more. These data represent a drop of 1.7 percentage points compared to the same month in 2021.
Ipea calculated the rates based on the quarterly series of the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (Pnad Contínua) of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). To be compared, the data were seasonally adjusted.
