Brazil: Research shows that tourism and exportation generate more jobs

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Municipalities with a tourist vocation or that excel in the production and export of commodities (agricultural and mineral products traded on the international market) are contributing to the reduction of unemployment in the country, reveals a survey conducted by the National Confederation of Trade of Goods, Services, and Tourism (CNC).

The survey analyzed the 5,570 municipalities in the country, from which a selection was made of cities that employ at least 10,000 formal workers. The result found covered more than 660 municipalities.

“We analyzed municipality by municipality how employees’ stock evolved,” Fabio Bentes, an economist from CNC, told Agência Brasil on April 11. From July 2020, when the General Cadastre for Employed and Unemployed (Caged) started to register positive balances, after the first wave of the new coronavirus pandemic, until February 2022 was considered.

In a ranking of the 20 municipalities that generated the most job openings, in relative terms, the CNC researchers noted that 15 of them are tourism hubs or commodity-producing and exporting hubs.

“Of the 20, ten are tourism, such as Porto Seguro (Bahia), Araruama (Rio de Janeiro), Balneário Camboriú (Santa Catarina), among others. In terms of commodities, municipalities with mining activities predominate.

HIGHLIGHTS

According to the survey, Canaã dos Carajás (Pará) was the municipality with the highest positive variation of occupations in the formal labor market during the period: 66%, equivalent to the creation of 7,370 vacancies.

The four cities in the following positions of the ranking are places with a tourist vocation: Porto Seguro (Bahia) registered an increase of 52% (10,019); followed by Vacaria (Rio Grande do Sul), with 44% (7,164); Araruama (Rio de Janeiro), with 39% (5,019); and Ipojuca (Pernambuco), with 37% (7,452).

Agricultural commodities were also highlights in the municipalities of Pederneiras (São Paulo), with a 23% increase in jobs (2,590), and Santo Antônio de Jesus (Bahia), also registering a 23% increase (4,152), where sugar and citrus production predominate, respectively.

According to Fabio Bentes, the conclusion is that the effect of the economic recovery after the most acute phases of the pandemic favored municipalities that produce commodities and, in the case of tourism, the sector that suffered most in the pandemic, it was observed that, at this moment, it tends to accumulate the generation of jobs in the last 20 months, and is the one that has recovered most evidently.

“It was the one that suffered the most during the pandemic, but in compensation, and precisely because of this, it is the one that has the most potential for regeneration of the labor market,” said Fabio Bentes.

The economist said that looking at Caged, the Brazilian job market generated, in these 20 months, more than 4.44 million vacancies, which shows a 12% advance in the stock in all municipalities. “But we had cities with 70%, 50%, and 40% growth rates. That is an indication that, after the most acute phases of the pandemic, tourism, in a way, is managing to regenerate itself.

Bentes pointed out that the sector has not yet returned to employing the same number of people as before the pandemic, around 3 million workers in tourism activities. Today, it is approximately 2.8 million.

“It is a sector with potential for recovery, but because of the deterioration of economic conditions, such as high inflation and high-interest rates, certain services with significantly varying prices tend to brake on this recovery trend. Out of the health crisis comes the deterioration of economic conditions. Hence the Broad Consumer Price Index [IPCA] of 11%, which hurts the tourism sector”, he explained.

However, the economist does not rule out that the number of employees hired by the tourism sector returns to levels before the pandemic. But everything will depend on the improvement of the economy, on the non-emergence of a new wave of the covid-19.

Fabio Bentes said that after the creation of 2.76 million jobs in 2021, a year in which the Brazilian economy grew 4.6%, the perspective of a more modest advance of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) this year, around 0.5%, should lead to the generation of fewer jobs. Given this scenario, the CNC projects a positive balance of 1.61 million formal job openings for this year.

With information from Agência Brasil