Over 3 million minors worked in 2013, survey says

Brazil had 3.1 million workers aging 5-17 years old in 2013, the year when the latest National Household Sample Survey (Pnad) was conducted. The results were published today (Sep 18) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). A reduction of 12.3% (438 thousand children and adolescents) was reported in this number compared to 2012.

“We can put this decline down to schooling, and people’s permanence in school”, says survey coordinator Maria Lucia Vieira.

The study further reveals that the employment rate among individuals at the age of 5 to 17 in Brazil was 7.4% in 2013, against 8.4% in 2012. Their monthly household per capita income was estimated at $238.20, and the average number of hours at work was 27.1 per week. The employed population from 5 to 13 years of age was mostly found engaging in agriculture-related activities (63.8%).

In the group surveyed, teenagers aging 14-17 made up the majority (2.6 million). Compared to the previous year, the total amount indicates that 362 thousand young people had left the labor market in 2013. Among 5-9 year-olds, 24 thousand stopped working, a drop of 29.2% from 2012, although child labor is forbidden by Brazilian law.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira