Unemployment hits 11.2% in Brazil

Brazil's unemployment rate rose again in the moving quarter ended in April, reaching 11.2%. That result is 1.7 percentage points up from the moving quarter ended in January (9.5%). These findings are in the Continuous National Household Sampling Survey (Continuous PNAD) released on Tuesday (May 31) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).This is the highest rate since the survey began in January 2012.

There were 11.4 million unemployed workers in April, a 18.6% increase from the moving quarter ended in January this year—equivalent to over 1.8 million people out of the job market.

General industry, construction, and trade, vehicle and motorcycle servicing were the industries that most contributed to the unemployment rate.

According to the survey, the 3.9% decrease in the number of jobs in general industry meant 473,000 fewer people in the job market; in construction, the decline was 5.1%, about 400,000 people; in trade and vehicle and motorcycle servicing, the decline reached 1.7%, or 302,000 fewer employed people. There were no significant variations in the other business groups.

Translated by Mayra Borges