Brazil: Lula’s government halves job creation in January

By Paulo Briguet

Brazil began 2023 with a balance of 83,300 jobs with signed labor contracts in January, according to the Ministry of Labor figures.

The result shows a drop of 50.2% compared to January last year, during the Bolsonaro government, when 167,300 jobs were generated.

The federal government reports that 1.87 million hirings and 1.79 million layoffs were registered in the year’s first month.

For the Minister of Labor, Luiz Marinho, the Central Bank is to blame for the drop in job generation, with its interest rate policy to contain inflation.

The increase in the population’s indebtedness and the cost of the basic food basket were also pointed out as causes for the decrease.

In January 2020 and January 2021, 112,000 and 245,200 jobs were opened, respectively.

Considering the new Caged (General Cadastre for Employed and Unemployed) methodology, adopted in 2020, this was the worst January of the series.

At the end of the first month of this year, the country had a balance of 42.52 million formal jobs, an increase of only 0.20% compared to December.

Of the five main groups of economic activities, there was a positive balance in services (+40,686 jobs), construction (+38,965 jobs), industry (+34,023 jobs), and agriculture and cattle-raising (+23,147 jobs).

In commerce, there was a drop, with a negative balance of 53,524 jobs.

But the blame, of course, lies with the Central Bank.

With information from Brasil Sem Medo