RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The unemployment rate in Brazil closed at 13.7% in the May-July mobile quarter, which is the lowest rate so far this year and a drop of one percentage point compared to 14.7% in the previous period, according to official data released on Thursday, September 30.
In absolute numbers, there are still 14.1 million people looking for work in this country of 213 million inhabitants, which represents 676,000 fewer than in the moving quarter closed in April, indicated the latest report of the federal Institute of Statistics IBGE.
Compared to the period May-July 2020, when the economy was severely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic and the confinement measures taken by the authorities, the unemployment rate remained stable (13.8%).
The average expectation of 26 consulting firms and financial institutions surveyed by the economic daily Valor was an unemployment rate of 13.9% in the quarter ending in July.
IBGE indicated that the drop in the unemployment rate was mainly because the employed population rose to 89 million people, an increase of 3.6% compared to the quarter ended last April and of 8.6% compared to the measurement of the same quarter in 2020.
“It is the first time, since the three-month period closed in April 2020, that the employment level is above 50%, which indicates that more than half of the working-age population is employed in the country,” said the report’s analyst, Adriana Beringuy, quoted by the G1 portal.
However, 40.8% of the employed population are informal workers, that is, 36.3 million people, representing an increase compared to 39.8% of the quarter that closed in April and 37.4% of the mobile quarter May-July 2020.