RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Since the beginning of 2019, Brazil, which for years was the largest car manufacturer in Latin America, has recorded a decline in production figures and employment in the sector. After Ford’s departure after 100 years in the country, this year Toyota also announced the closure of one of its plants in the country.
This is just one of the signs that manufacturing continues to decline, not only in Brazil but in Latin America in general. While in 1984 manufacturing (value-added) accounted for 34.3% of Brazil’s GDP, today it accounts for only 9.8%. This contrasts with the 15.4% it currently accounts for in Argentina and the 17.3% in Mexico.
All this has also led to a deterioration in employment. In 2013, the automotive industry employed more than 135,000 Brazilians. By 2019, the number of employees will fall by 21% to just under 107,000, according to data from the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers.
Workers in the country agree that the situation is partly due to government neglect, which the industry, in general, has suffered at the hands of Jair Bolsonaro’s government. “This government has shown no interest in the industry.
They only care about agribusiness and deforestation, and that puts us at a disadvantage, because in order to grow, we need industry,” Moises Selerges, president of the São Bernardo Region Metalworkers Union, told Bloomberg.