The result was below the market estimate, which expected a rate of 8.1% for the period.
The increase in unemployment in the quarterly comparison was driven by the increase in the number of people looking for work. The number grew 6.7% compared to the quarter ending in December 2023, an increase of 542 thousand people looking for work.
Another factor that contributed to the increase in unemployment was the reduction in the country’s employed population. There was a decrease of -0.8% in the quarterly comparison. In the annual comparison, however, this contingent grew by 2.4%.
The drop in the quarterly comparison is due to a seasonal movement. “The increase in the unemployment rate was caused by the reduction in employment. This panorama characterizes a seasonal movement of the workforce in the first quarter of each, with losses in employment in relation to the previous quarter”, says Adriana Beringuy, coordinator of Household Surveys at IBGE. .
Even with the increase, the unemployment rate was the lowest ever recorded for a quarter ending in March since 2014, when the index reached 7.2%. Therefore, the observed increase “does not cancel out the downward trend in the unemployment rate observed in the last two years”, says Beringuy.
The number of unemployed people was 8.6 million until March. The number represents an increase of 6.7% in the quarterly comparison and a drop of 8.6% (808 thousand people less) in the annual comparison.
Tags: Unemployment quarter March
