The Brazilian economy has created 37% fewer formal jobs in the first two months of Lula’s term than under Bolsonaro

The Brazilian economy created 241,785 formal jobs last February, the Ministry of Labor and Employment reported yesterday, Wednesday, based on data from the General Registry of Employed and Unemployed.

According to the report, the result was much lower than in February 2022, when 353,294 new jobs were registered, a drop of 31.6 percent.

Lower job creation confirms a trend toward a slowdown in the Brazilian economy.

The Lula government is attempting to blame this poor performance on the high-interest rate policy of the Brazilian Central Bank, whose reference rate is currently 13.75 percent per year.

The new jobs registered in February result from 1,949,844 hirings minus 1,708,059 dismissals.

In the first two months of the year, 326,356 new formal jobs were created, 194,193 fewer (-37%) than in the same period of 2022 (520,549 positions).

Job creation was led by the services sector, with 164,200 new jobs, followed by industry (40,380 jobs), construction (22,246 jobs), and agriculture (16,284 jobs).

According to official data already adjusted, only the commerce sector presented a negative result, with a loss of 1,325 formal jobs.

The “stock” of formal jobs in Brazil went from 42,528,996 in January to 42,770,781 in February, while unemployment insurance applications went from 614,085 in January to 557,798 in February.

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