Unemployment down again in quarter ending in April

Brazil's unemployment rate dropped 0.8 percentage points from the quarter ending in April, and closed out the period from May to July this year at 12.8% of the economically active population—slightly above 100 million people.

The figures can be found in the Continuous PNAD (National Household Sample Survey), released today (Aug 31) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, which also shows that the unemployed in the country total 13.3 million people.

In the three-month period prior, ending in April, the unemployment rate had stood at 13.6%. Compared to the same quarter the year before, there was a 1.2 percentage-point increase in joblessness.

The country's employed population totaled 90.7 million—up 1.6% from the quarter ending in April. The current number shows no significant change compared to the same three-month period in 2016.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira