Unemployment Rate in Brazil Drops to 12 Percent in Q2

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The country’s unemployment rate dropped to 12 percent in the second quarter, down from 12.7 percent in the first quarter of this year and from 12.4 percent in the second quarter of 2018.

The rate fell in ten of the 27 Federal states in the transition from the first to the second quarter this year, according to data released yesterday, August 15th, by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). The sharpest drops occurred in Acre, from 18 to 13.6 percent, Amapá, from 20.2 to 16.9 percent, and Rondônia, from 8.9 to 6.7 percent. In the remaining 17 states, the rate remained unchanged.

Compared to the second quarter of 2018, the rate increased in two states: Roraima (from 11.2 to 14.9 percent), and in the Federal District (from 12.2 to 13.7 percent). The rate dropped in three states: Amapá (from 21.3 to 16.9 percent), Alagoas (from 17.3 to 14.6 percent), and Minas Gerais (from 10.8 to 9.6 percent). In the other states, the rate remained stable.

Search for employment

A contingent of 3.35 million unemployed in the country have been searching for work for at least two years. This equals to 26.2 percent (or about one in every four) of the total number of unemployed in Brazil. This year’s second-quarter figures are a new record since the inception of the historical series of the National Household Sample Survey (PNAD) in 2012.

The data were released August 15th, by IBGE. According to the figures, in the second quarter of 2018, the contingent of unemployed seeking work for at least two years recorded 196,000 fewer people, i.e., it totaled 3.15 million.

In the second quarter of 2015, the total was 1.43 million people, i.e., less than half than in the second quarter of this year.