Brazil Unemployment Among Young Reaches 24.1 Percent

By Nelson Belen, Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – According to a recent study from the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), the unemployment rate among individuals about to enter the labor market, 18 to 24-year-olds, was 24.1 percent in the first quarter of 2016. This is more than double the overall unemployment rate for the same period, 10.9 percent.

Similar to the rise of overall unemployment, among young people the 24.9 percent represents an increase from the previous quarter, 19.4 percent, and from the first quarter of 2015, 17.6 percent.

Among the other age ranges, the unemployment rate was 9.9 percent for 25 to 39-year-olds, 5.9 percent for 40 to 59-year-olds, and 3.3 percent for 60 and over.

Unemployment also rose in all the regions of the country, with the highest rate of unemployment in the Northeast, which was at 12.8 percent for the quarter. Next was the Southeast at 11.4 percent, the North at 10.5 percent, the Midwest at 9.7 percent, and finally, the South at 7.3 percent.

Among the states, the total unemployment rate was highest in Bahia at 15.5 percent, followed by Rio Grande do Norte and Amapá at 14.3 percent. The states with the fewest unemployed were Santa Catarina at six percent, and Rio Grande do Sul and Rondônia, both at 7.5 percent.

In addition, for the first quarter, women represented the slight majority of unemployed with 50.8 percent of the unemployed in the country, or 5.64 million people, while men represented 49.2 percent of the unemployed, 5.45 million people. The region with the highest percentage of unemployed women is the South, where women represented 54.5 percent of the unemployed.

The IBGE surveyed 3,500 municipalities throughout the country. A person was deemed unemployed if they had not worked for a minimum of one month before the survey.