The Brazilian Geography and Statistics Institute (IBGE) reported on Thursday (Jan. 30) that the average unemployment rate in 2013 was 5.4% – its lowest ever since survey on the data began in 2002.
The figure was 0.1 percentage point below the 5.5% recorded in 2012, and 7 percentage points below 2003's 12.4%.
In December 2013, the unemployment rate (which measures the ratio of unemployed persons against the labor force) was 4.3% – a decrease of 0.3% percentage points compared to the 4.6% recorded both in November 2013 and in December 2012.
The institute also reported a 6.2% decrease in unemployed population between November and December last year, which means in absolute terms that there were 70,000 fewer persons looking for a job in the last month of 2013. The total unemployed population for the year was 1.3 million, 20,000 fewer than in 2012.
The average number of workers with formal job contracts in the private sector was 11.6 million persons, accounting for 50.3% of the employed population. In 2012, this ratio was 49.2%.
The survey data was obtained in six metropolitan regions – Recife (Pernambuco), Salvador (Bahia), Belo Horizonte (Minas Gerais), Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro), São Paulo (São Paulo) and Porto Alegre (Rio Grande do Sul).
Translated by Mayra Borges
Fonte: Unemployment closes 2013 at 5.4%
