Unemployment in Brazil falls to 9.4% in April, lowest rate since October 2015 -IPEA

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The unemployment rate in Brazil reached 9.4% in April this year, the lowest since October 2015, according to a study published Friday (24) by the Institute for Applied Economic Research (Ipea). Compared to the same month in 2021, the rate has dropped by 4.9 percentage points. Overall, the country had 11 million unemployed in April.

According to Ipea, the number of employed people reached 97.8 million in April, the highest level since 2012, increasing by 10.8% compared to the same period last year and by 2.1% compared to March. According to Ipea, the data analysis shows that the expansion of employment has taken place in all regions, all age and education segments, and in all sectors of the economy.

Ipea highlights the recovery in sectors that experienced a more significant decline at the height of the pandemic due to social disengagement. In the first quarter of this year, 6 of the 13 sectors studied registered an increase in the occupation rate of more than 10%, particularly in accommodation and food services, with an increase in the occupation rate of 32.5%, in personal services, with a rise of 19.5%, and in household-related services, with an increase of 19.4%.

However, the data show that there are still several challenges to overcome in the Brazilian labor market. Even in the face of a more robust recovery in formal employment, most new jobs are being created in the informal segments of the economy.

In the last mobile quarter ending April 2022, the number of workers with a signed employment contract increased by 11.6%, while the number of people without an employment contract increased by 20.8% compared to 2021.

There are still about 4.2 million people in the country who do not have a job. This refers to people who would like to work but are not looking for work because they believe they will not find one. However, the contingent recorded in April is the lowest since September 2017. The share of discouraged people in the population outside the labor force declined from 5.1% to 3.7% between April 2021 and April 2022.

Underemployed workers are those who work less than 40 hours per week and have the opportunity and desire to work more. In April, the number of workers reporting themselves as underemployed was 6.4 million, or 6.5% of total employment. These figures represent a decrease of 1.7 percentage points compared to the same month in 2021.

Ipea calculated the rates based on the quarterly series of the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (Pnad) of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). To allow comparisons, the data were seasonally adjusted.