Brazil: unemployment grows in the first quarter of 2023, reveals IBGE

By João Pedro Magalhães

According to the National Household Sample Survey (PNAD) released last Friday (28) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), there was an increase in unemployment in the first quarter of the year, reaching 8.8%.

The increase was the first after a long sequence of drops, but according to information from previous years, it is usual to have this increase in the first months of the year.

“This movement of shrinking occupation and expanding demand for work is observed in all the first quarters of the survey, except for 2022, marked by the post-pandemic recovery,” said Adriana Beringuy, coordinator of Work and Income at IBGE.

The minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad (PT), also clarified that “the increase in unemployment in the first quarter is natural” due to the decrease in economic activity from the last months of the previous year, fostered by the Christmas and New Year’s festivities.

Moreover, the minister also recalled the efforts of the current government to lower interest rates and put pressure back on the Central Bank.

Despite this predictable increase in unemployment in the first quarter, the new PT government had to deal with some atypical situations in this first period of its administration.

Here are two examples of situations that have harmed our country’s economy:

• Inflation: Central Bank projects an increase in inflation.
• More than 90 companies filed for judicial reorganization, and more than 70 declared bankruptcy.

Recall some emblematic cases:

• OI enters second judicial reorganization;
• Grupo Petrópolis filed for judicial reorganization;
• Livraria Cultura undergoes judicial reorganization;
• Pan declares bankruptcy;
• Americanas asks for judicial reorganization;
• Yoki announces plant closure.

With information from Brasil Sem Medo