Pandemic impacts black women’s share in Rio de Janeiro job market

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – According to a recent study by the Municipal Secretariat for Economic Development (SMDEIS), black women’s share in Rio de Janeiro job market dropped 9 percentage points in the first quarter in 2021, compared to the same period in 2020 – from 56% to 47%.

The data also show that only 18% of jobs with signed work cards in the first quarter of the year were held by women.

According to the study, this was the largest drop in occupation among gender and race groups. In the same period, the number of white women employed fell by 5.9 percentage points, as did the number of black men. White men posted the lowest variation, of 4.3 percentage points, registering the best employment rate (64.5%).

Undersecretary of Economic Development Marcel Balassiano points out that the rate of black women with informal jobs is one of the factors contributing to this scenario. In 2019, the rate stood at 38.9%.

“The pandemic ultimately aggravated inequalities in the economic scenario even further, mainly among the most vulnerable groups, such as informal workers. As there is a large number of black women in informality, they were more affected,” the undersecretary explains.

According to the study, all socioeconomic groups were affected by unemployment in this period. However, the black population suffered a greater impact, with a 20% reduction in the total number of employed from the first quarter 2020 through the first quarter 2021, while among whites, there was an 8% decrease in the number of women and 4% in the number of men.

The report also highlights that black women account for 68.2% of workers in domestic services in Rio. Only 15.2% of them are in the sectors of information, communication and financial activities and 10.8% in the areas of public administration, defense and social security. As for schooling, only 21.3% of these women have higher education, against 44.6% of white women.

According to the Municipal Secretariat for Economic Development, the study helps to plan new public policies with a focus on increasing employability and training of black women.

The project “Programadores Cariocas” (Rio de Janeiro Programmers), which offers programming and technology courses for youths, is one of the city government’s initiatives that should include incentives for this public.

“This sector is still very male-dominated, so we intend to get women to participate too, mainly black women,” says undersecretary Marcel Balassiano.