The unemployment rate reached 8.6% in the quarter ended in February, an increase of 0.5 percentage points in relation to the previous quarter. This is the highest value for the period since 2015, when the rate was 7.5%. The number of unemployed increased by 5.5%, reaching 9.2 million people – an increase of 483 thousand people looking for work. This information is from the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (Continuous PNAD), released by the IBGE on March 31st.
“In the quarter ended in February, this increase in unemployment occurred after six consecutive quarters of significant declines, which were greatly influenced by the recovery of work in the post-pandemic. A return to unemployment growth in this period may signal a return to the seasonal nature of the labor market. If we look retrospectively, in the historical series of the survey, all the moving quarters ended in February are marked by the expansion of unemployment, with the exception of 2022”, explains the coordinator of Work and Income of the IBGE, Adriana Beringuy.
The fall in the number of employed persons was 1.6%, with a reduction of 1.6 million people in the labor market compared to the previous quarter. As a result, the level of employment, the percentage of employed persons in the working-age population, reached 56.4%, down 1.0 pp using the same basis of comparison.
“The employed population has a behavior that is the inverse of the trajectory of the unemployed population. In the first months of the year, there is a movement practically combined, with a retraction of the employed population and the expansion of unemployment. This is linked to both the layoffs of temporary workers who are usually hired at the end of the year and the greater pressure on the job market after the festive period, ”he says.
Among the categories that most lost jobs in the period are employees without a formal contract in the public sector (-14.6% or less 457 thousand), employees without a formal contract in the private sector (-2.6% or less 349 thousand people ) and the self-employed with CNPJ (-4.8% or less 330 thousand). The number of formal employees in the private sector remained stable after six consecutive quarters of significant growth.
Still in comparison with the previous quarter, there was a reduction of 206 thousand people in the category of employers, which now totals 4.1 million people. The number of domestic workers remained stable and is estimated at 5.8 million. The informality rate was also stable in the quarter (38.9%).
In the same period, there was no occupancy growth in any of the sectors analyzed by the survey. Four of them had retraction in the period: Public administration, defense, social security, education, human health and social services (-2.7%, or less 471 thousand people), General industry (-2.7%, or less 343 thousand people ), Agriculture, livestock, forest production, fishing and aquaculture (-2.3%, or less 202 thousand people) and Other services (-3.2%, or less 171 thousand people). The other investigated sectors remained stable.
According to Beringuy, in the public administration sector, this decrease in occupation has seasonal reasons. “In the case of this activity, the retraction is related to the health sectors and, mainly, education. It is possible to observe, throughout the historical series, that at the beginning of each year, there are layoffs, especially for workers without a formal contract hired by the public administration on a temporary basis”, he highlights.
With the increase in unemployment and the decrease in the number of employed persons, the population outside the labor force grew by 2.3%, which represents 1.5 million more people. In the same comparison, the potential workforce, estimated at 7.3 million, was flat. This group brings together those who were not busy or looking for a job in the market, but who had the potential to become a workforce. The number of discouraged people was also stable when compared to the previous quarter. They add up to 4 million people.
Income is stable in the quarter ended in February
The real average income was estimated at R$ 2,853 and remained stable compared to the quarter ended in November. There was an increase only in the sectors Accommodation and food (6.0%, or more R$ 107) and Domestic services (2.6%, or more R$ 28). The others were stable. With regard to positions in the occupation, there was an increase among domestic workers (2.6%, or more R$ 28) and employees in the public sector (including statutory and military servants) (2.0%, or more R$ 84 ).
Income mass was also stable compared to the previous quarter. It was estimated at R$ 275.5 billion, growing 11.4% compared to the same period of the previous year.
More about the search
The Continuous PNAD is the main instrument for monitoring the workforce in the country. The survey sample per quarter in Brazil corresponds to 211,000 households surveyed. Around two thousand interviewers work on the survey, in 26 states and the Federal District, integrated into the collection network of more than 500 IBGE agencies.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, IBGE implemented the collection of survey information by telephone as of March 17, 2020. In July 2021, face-to-face collection resumed. It is possible to confirm the interviewer’s identity on the Respondendo ao IBGE website or via the Call Center (0800 721 8181), checking the interviewer’s registration number, RG or CPF, data that may be requested by the informant.
