Brazil formal job growth this year tops 1 million

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Job growth in Brazil accelerated sharply in May, official figures showed on Thursday, with formal jobs created almost double the consensus estimate to lift the total number of new positions opened this year above 1 million.

That marks the strongest pace of job growth since 2010, both for the month of May and the first five months of the year, according to the Economy Ministry.

Some 1.55 million positions were created in May and 1.27 million were cut, resulting in 280,666 net new positions. That was well up from the previous month and almost double the median forecast of 150,000 new jobs in a Reuters poll of economists.

The gains were led by the services sector, which created a net of 110,956 new positions. Commerce accounted for 60,480 net new positions, industry 44,146, and agriculture 42,526, the ministry said.

This means Brazil created a net of 1.23 million new formal jobs in the first five months of the year. These figures do not include the near-40 million undocumented workers in Brazil who do not have formal employment registration.

The total number of formally registered workers in Brazil rose to 40.6 million in May, the highest May reading since 2015, according to ministry figures.

Earnings fell, however, with the average monthly salary of new jobs created in May down 4.1% in real terms from the prior month to an unadjusted R$1,797.10 (US$363).