Unemployment reaches lowest figures since 2015 in Brazil

Unemployment reaches lowest figures since 2015 in Brazil

According to a report from Brazil’s statistics bureau (IBGE) released Thursday, unemployment in South America’s largest country stood at 7.9% (around 8.5 million people) in the second quarter of 2023, the lowest number since 2015 and a 0.6% decrease from the quarter ending in April.

Thursday’s figures reached the levels of February 2015 under President Dilma Rousseff who was eventually impeached and also represented a 1.2 interannual drop, in addition to a 5.9% salary improvement when compared to 2022.

According to IBGE, the number of people out of work in Brazil between May and July was 8.5 million, 573,000 less than in the immediately preceding quarter and 1.36 million less than a year ago.

The employment rate was 56.8 percent, 0.6 percent higher than in the previous quarter and stable in the annual comparison, while the informality rate between May and July stood at 39.1% (38.9 million people), lower than the 39.8% in 2022.

In terms of income, the average salary in Brazil was 2,935 reais (US$ 601), 5.1 percent higher than a year ago.

Labor Minister Luiz Marinho forecast that Brazil would create 2 million formal jobs this year, after 142,702 in July alone and 1,166,125 in the first seven months of Lula’s government.

“This decrease was mainly due to the increase in the number of people in employment,” said Adriana Beringuy of IBGE.

“After the pandemic, we had a period of recovery in the employed population, during which we recorded strong increases in several activities. As this recovery consolidates, the gains are again more strongly influenced by the economic and seasonal characteristics of each activity. As a result, from an annual perspective, growth is becoming less intense,” she argued.