Unemployment in Brazil for April Reaches 11.2 Percent

By Jay Forte, Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The unemployment rate in Brazil rose again in the movable quarter ended in April 2016 (February, March, April), reaching 11.2 percent according to a government news source. The data is from the National Survey of Household Continuous (Continuous PNAD) and was disclosed today (May 31st) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

The result is 1.7 percentage points higher than the previous movable quarter, which ended in January (9.5 percent), and the unemployment rate is the highest since the survey began in January 2012. In the same mobile quarter of 2015 (November-January), unemployment was eight percent, 3.2 percentage points lower.

According to the survey, in April there were 11.4 million unemployed workers in Brazil, a figure that shows an increase of 18.6 percent compared to the mobile quarter that ended in January this year. That is the equivalent of over 1.8 million people out of the labor market. Compared to the mobile quarter that ended in January last year (2015), the number of unemployed reached 3.4 million, an increase of 42.1 percent.

The data from the report also indicated the number of people employed in the private sector, with a formal contract, fell 1.8 percent compared to the quarter ended in January 2016 and 4.3 percent over the same quarter last year – the equivalent of about 1.5 million people.

The IBGE figures also indicate that the actual average earnings for all jobs of employed workers was R$1,962, a statistically stable value against the movable quarter ended in January 2016, which was R$1,977. In the quarter ended in January last year (R$2,030), the drop in real average earnings reached 3.3 percent.

According to data from Continuous Pnad, in General Industry, the fall of 3.9 percent in the number of jobs meant less 473,000 people in the labor market. In construction, the decline was 5.1 percent, about 400,000 people; in trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, the decline reached 1.7 percent, or less than 302,000 people employed. According to IBGE, in the other groups there was no significant variation.