Casual Employment in Brazil Exceeds 50 Percent in 11 States, Says IBGE

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Casual labor is the main occupation of the population in 11 Brazilian states, reported on Friday, February 14th, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

The drop in unemployment in 2019 was driven by the increase in casual work, which reached 41.1 percent, its highest rate since 2016, and broke records in 19 states and the Federal District.

Casual employment was the main occupation of over 40 percent of the population in 21 states. Only two federated entities fell below 30 percent – Santa Catarina and the Federal District. Casual employment in the Federal District was also a record, although the rate was lower than the country’s average.

“Casual labor has sustained the employment increase in virtually the whole country,” said Adriana Beringuy, an analyst at PNAD (National Continuous Household Sampling Survey).

The analyst stated that in several states the rate of casual labor is higher than the growth of the formally employed population.

“In Brazil, out of the 1.82 million employed people, one million are casual workers,” she said.

Workers without a signed workers’ record book, domestic workers without a signed workers’ record book, employers without a CNPJ (National Registry of Legal Entities), self-employed persons without a CNPJ and family business workers are classified as casual workers.

Casual employment reached the equivalent of 38.4 million people, despite the stability in relation to 2018. There was an increase of 0.3 percentage points and an increase of one million people, according to the IBGE.

Last year, unemployment dropped in 16 states, in line with the national figures, which dropped from 12.3 percent in 2018 to 11.9 percent. The employed population increased by two percent in Brazil, totaling 93.4 million workers in 2019.

Despite the drop in the unemployment rate, compared to the lowest point in the series, when it reached 6.8 million in 2014, the unemployed population almost doubled, growing 87.7 percent in five years, said IBGE.

There were 12.6 million unemployed on average in 2019, a decline of 1.7 percent, or 215,000 fewer people, compared to 2018.

According to figures released on Friday by the IBGE, 2.9 million people have been looking for work for two years or more.

In the fourth quarter of 2019, the average real income of the population remained stable in 25 of the 27 federal entities, estimated at R$2,340, both when compared to the previous quarter and the same period in 2019.

Source: Folhapress