A unemployment rate in Brazil was 7.9% in the quarter ended in Marchaccording to the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (PNAD), released this Tuesday (30) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).
With the results, the absolute number of unemployed people grew 6.7% against the previous quarter, reaching 8.6 million people. In the annual comparison, the decline is 8.6%.
In the first quarter of 2024, there was a 0.8% drop in the employed population, estimated at 100.2 million people. In the year, the increase was 2.4%, with 2.4 million more people employed.
According to Adriana Beringuy, coordinator of Household Surveys at IBGE, the increase in the unemployment rate was caused by the reduction in employment, in a seasonal movement of the workforce in the first quarter of the year.
This report is being updated.
The percentage of employed people in the population of working age — called occupation level — was estimated at 57%, a decrease of 0.6 percentage points compared to the previous quarter. Compared to the same period last year, the increase is 0.9 pp
The number of people in the workforce (sum of employed and unemployed) increased by 1.5%, estimated at 108.8 million. The population outside the force totaled 66.9 million, stable compared to the previous period.
See research highlights
- Unemployment rate: 7.9%
- Unemployed population: 8.6 million people
- Employed population: 100.2 million
- Population outside the labor force: 66.9 million
- Discouraged population: 3.6 million
- Employees with a formal contract: 37.98 million
- Employees without a formal contract: 13.4 million
- Self-employed workers: 25.4 million
- Domestic workers: 5.9 million
- Informal workers: 38.9 million
- Informality rate: 38.9%
Signed portfolio remains
The positive highlight of the research is the maintenance of formal employment at good levels. With 37.984 million employees in this group, there was a historic record for comparable quarters, even though the increase represented stability in statistical terms.
“The stability of formal employment in the private sector, in a quarter of reduction in employment as a whole, is an important sign of continued gains in the formalization of the employed population”, says Beringuy, from IBGE.
In employment without a formal contract, there was statistical stability, with a slight reduction in the number in the quarter. There were 13.3 million in this quarter, compared to 13.5 million in the previous quarter — which had been a record for the comparable series.
The usual real income increased compared to the previous quarter, by 1.5%, and reached R$ 3,123. In the year, growth was 4%.
The usual real income bill was estimated at R$308.3 billion, another record in the IBGE historical series. The result had an insignificant variation compared to the previous quarter, and grew 6.6% in the annual comparison.
Unemployment rate rises to 7.8% in the quarter ending in February
