Unemployment slides to 14.1% in 2nd quarter

Jobless people amounted to 14.44 mi, a new record for the period

Published on 31/08/2021 - 14:12 By Akemi Nitahara - Rio de Janeiro

Unemployment declined 0.6 percentage points in the moving quarter ending in June this year compared to the first quarter, and closed out June at 14.1 percent. Despite the reduction, the country has 14.4 million people seeking employment. The figures can be found in the Continuous PNAD (National Household Sample Survey) and were made public today (Aug. 31) by the government’s statistics agency IBGE.

The record in unemployment was observed in the first quarter of 2021, affecting as many as 14.8 million people. According to research analyst Adriana Beringuy, despite the recovery, joblessness is still high and showing the highest level in this time series for a second quarter.

“The population outside of the labor force rose considerably last year and it is still high, at a level much higher than it was before the pandemic. In the quarter, there was a decline of 1.6 million people out of the labor force. Year on year, after five quarters with a consecutive expulsion of these people, there was a reduction.”

She also mentioned that the yearly comparison refers to the second quarter of 2020, when the more significant effects of the pandemic started being felt and the population outside of the labor force saw a major increase.

As for the employed population, a growth of 1.8 percent was observed in the second quarter this year, reaching 102 million people. Year on year, the expansion stood at 6.3 percent, after four months on the wane.

Translation: Fabrício Ferreira -  Edition: Maria Claudia / Nira Foster

Latest news