Unemployment rate reaches 8.5% between February and April, the lowest since 2015, reveals IBGE
The data released by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) come from the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (Continuous PNAD).
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The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) released this Wednesday morning (31) data that point to a drop in the unemployment rate in the country. According to the survey, the unemployment rate was 8.5% between February and April this year, the lowest since 2015, when it was 8.1%.
The search
According to data from the National Household Sample Survey (PNAD) Continuous, during the period from February to April last year, the unemployment rate was registered at 10.5%, indicating a reduction of two percentage points compared to the same period in 2023. On the other hand, compared to the previous quarter, from November 2022 to January of this year, the unemployment rate is practically stable, as reported by the IBGE. In that period, the unemployment rate was 8.4%.
"This stability is different from what we usually see for this period. The seasonal pattern of the February-March-April moving quarter is an increase in the unemployment rate, through a larger unemployed population, which did not happen this time", says Alessandra Brito, research analyst.
She also pointed out that the underutilized population, made up of individuals who are unemployed or who could work more hours than they currently do, totaled 21 million people. This number represents a 2.5% left compared to the previous quarter (ending January) and a decrease of 19.6% compared to the same period last year (quarter ended April 2022).
The number of people who are outside the labor force, that is, individuals who are not employed and are not looking for a job, recorded a raise, reaching a total of 67.2 million. Compared to the previous quarter, there was an increase of 1.3%, and compared to last year, an increase of 3.5%.
Income
In the last two quarters, the average real income of individuals remained practically unchanged at R$ 2,891. However, there was an increase of 7.5% compared to the same period of the previous year. The mass of usual real income, which totaled R$ 278.8 billion, also remained stable in relation to the previous quarter and registered an annual growth of 9.6%.
Occupation and vacancy
According to IBGE data, the unemployed population, that is, people who were unable to find formal or informal work in the country totaled 9.1 million people up to April of this year, a slight increase in relation to the 9 million observed in January. On the other hand, compared to the corresponding period of the previous year, there was a reduction of 19.9% in this value, which corresponded to a decrease of 2.3 million individuals in the group of unemployed.
Not last quarter, the employed population was 98 million people, representing a drop of 0.6% compared to the previous quarter, which corresponds to a reduction of 605 thousand people. However, compared to the same quarter of 2022, there was an increase of 1.5%, with an increase of 1.5 million people.
Informality
The proportion of informal workers in the Brazilian labor market consumed 38.9% of the employed population, which is equivalent to 38 million people. This value is lower in relation to the previous quarter (39%) and the same quarter last year (40.1%). The number of employees with a formal contract in the private sector (existence of domestic work) registered 36.8 million, with no changes compared to the previous quarter, and presented an increase of 4.4% (increase of 1.6 million people) compared to the previous year.
The number of workers without a formal contract in the private sector (12.7 million) had a drop of 2.9% (less 383 thousand people) in the quarter, but verified in a stable comparison with the previous year. The number of self-employed workers (25.2 million people) remained constant in both comparisons. On the other hand, the number of domestic workers reached 5.7 million people, representing a reduction of 3.2% in the quarter, but remaining stable compared to the quarter ended in April 2022.
