Unemployment rate in Brazil reaches 14.7%, the highest level since 2012

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Unemployment in Brazil reached 14.7% between January and March this year, equivalent to 14.8 million people looking for work, the highest level recorded in the country since 2012, the government reported Thursday, May 27.

The unemployment rate in the first quarter of the year increased 0.8 percentage points compared to the last three months of 2020, when it stood at 13.9%, according to data released by the state-run Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

The data reflect the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in Brazil, which is the country in the world with second-most deaths due to coronavirus in absolute terms, behind only the United States.

The health emergency and the measures for its containment forced several companies to paralyze their operations for several months, which led to cutbacks in various economic sectors.

With some 212 million inhabitants, the country has already accumulated almost 455,000 deaths and 16.2 million people infected by the coronavirus.

However, IBGE pointed out that the increase in the unemployed population observed between January and March is an “expected” effect. The rate tends to increase at the beginning of each year, after the dismissal of people hired at the end of each the previous year for Christmas/New Years sales promotions.

On the other hand, the number of employed people (85.7 million) between January and March remained statistically stable compared to the last quarter of 2020. However, the Institute warned that the level of employment in the country has remained below 50% since May last year, indicating that “less than half of the working-age population is employed”.

The informality rate also remained stable, at 39.6%, and the number of the “discouraged”, which is how the IBGE considers people who have given up looking for a job, totaled 6 million people and remains at record levels.

Brazil closed 2020 with an average unemployment rate of 13.5%, the highest level since the new statistical measurement launched in 2012.