RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The unemployment rate reached 11.6% in the quarter through November, from 12.1% in the quarter through October and 14.4% in the year-to-date, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) said Friday.
The number of employed rose to 94.9 million in the 3 months through November from 94 million in the 3 months through October, while the number of people seeking employment fell to 12.4 million from 12.9 million during the same period.
Brazil’s unemployment rate typically declines in the final months of the year, as retailers and other service businesses hire workers to handle the increase in business related to the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.
“It’s the effect of what we see every year, unemployment drops because of temporary hiring for the holidays, and then it rises again at the start of the next as those jobs close,” said MUFG Brasil Bank chief economist Carlos Pedroso.
Brazil’s economic growth this year is expected to be lower than in 2021, with MUFG Bank forecasting GDP to grow 0.8% from last year. The unemployment rate should only start to decline again in the second quarter of 2022, Pedroso said.