Brazil’s Formal Job Creation Slows Sharply in April

BRAZIL · ECONOMY

Brazil’s formal labour market slowed sharply in April, adding just 85,888 jobs, well below every analyst forecast and less than half the previous month’s tally. Economists pointed to high interest rates and a cooling economy, even as services and construction continued to hire.

What the data show

The Ministry of Labour and Employment reported that Brazil created a net 85,888 formal jobs in April, the result of 2,268,655 hirings and 2,182,767 dismissals. It was the lowest monthly balance of the year and fell well short of the median forecast of around 230,000 in a Reuters survey of economists.

The figure marked a steep slowdown: it was 62.3% lower than the 227,974 jobs created in March and 63.9% below the same month of 2025. Excluding the pandemic year of 2020, it was the weakest April in the current data series.

Why hiring slowed

Analysts attributed the weakness to high interest rates and a deceleration in the broader economy. Brazil’s central bank has kept borrowing costs elevated to bring down inflation, a stance that tends to cool hiring and investment over time.

Some of the monthly drop also reflects seasonal factors: April is traditionally a weak month for commerce, while agricultural dismissals followed the end of the soybean harvest and the wind-down of apple and orange crops.

Where the jobs were

Three of the five broad sectors added formal jobs. Services led with 69,601 new posts, driven by health and social services and by transport and storage, followed by construction with 23,525 and industry with 9,256. Commerce and agriculture each shed around 8,000 jobs.

Twenty-four of Brazil’s 27 federal units posted positive balances, led by São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais. Workers aged up to 24 accounted for the bulk of the gains, with a positive balance of 111,261 posts that offset a decline among older workers.

The year so far

In the year to date, Brazil has created about 699,762 formal jobs, a 1.5% increase on the stock at the end of 2025. Over the twelve months to April, the balance reached 1,059,860 posts, a 2.3% rise. The accumulated total for January to April was 23.4% lower than the same period a year earlier.

The average real admission wage in April was R$2,386.56 ($474), up 0.7% from March and 1.8% higher than a year earlier. Labour Minister Luiz Marinho said the government still expects 2026 to end with the creation of at least one million jobs. This article reports official data and is general information, not investment advice.