The Ministry of Labor and Employment in Brazil announced that the country generated 155.27 thousand formal jobs in May 2023, according to the General Cadastre for Employed and Unemployed (Caged).
This figure represents the net balance of job creation after accounting for hirings and layoffs. In May, there were 2 million hirings and 1.844 million layoffs.
Compared to May 2022, when 277.73 thousand formal jobs were created, there was a significant decrease of 44% in job creation.
It is worth noting that in May 2020, amid the Covid pandemic, 398.44 thousand jobs were lost, while in May 2021, 266.35 thousand formal jobs were added.
The data indicate that job vacancies were opened in all regions of the country during May.
However, there was a decline in the average wage for admission, with it being recorded as R$2,004.57 (US$400), lower than April 2023 (R$ 2,022.83).
In comparison to May 2022, there was an increase in the average admission salary, which stood at R$ 1,969.02.
It is important to note that the Caged figures only consider workers with formal contracts and do not include informal workers.
Therefore, they cannot be directly compared with the unemployment rates reported by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) through the National Continuous Household Sample Survey (Pnad).
The most recent data from the IBGE reveals an unemployment rate of 8.5% in Brazil for the quarter ending in April, the lowest rate for that period since 2015.