Unemployment down to 13.2% in quarter ending in August

Brazil’s unemployment rate closed out the moving quarter ending in August at 13.2 percent—down 1.4 percentage points from the quarter ending in May, when joblessness affected 14.6 percent of the population. Year on year, the shrinkage was reported at 1.3 percentage point from August 2020 (14.4%). The figures can be found in the Monthly Continuous PNAD (National Household Sample Survey), published today (Oct. 27) by the government’s statistics agency IBGE.

According to the survey, the unemployed population declined 7.7 percent, 13.7 million people, against the quarter ending in May 2021, and kept steady year on year. The employed population, however, grew four percent, reaching 90.2 million people from the previous quarter. From August last year, the surge stood at 10.4 percent—another 8.5 million people.

Occupancy level

The study shows that the percentage of employed people within the working-age population—called occupancy rate—was estimated at 50.9 percent, up two percentage points from the quarter prior, and 4.1 percentage points year on year.

The underemployment rate declined 1.9 percentage points from the previous quarter and 3.2 percentage points from last year, going to 27.4 percent—31.1 million underemployed people, which represents a shrinkage of 5.5 percent from the previous quarter, and 6.6 percent year on year. Conversely, the population underemployed for insufficient working hours went up 4.7 percent in the quarter, and 29.2 percent year on year.

The portion of the population out of the workforce includes 73.4 million people—down 3.2 percent quarter on quarter and 7.3 from last year. Those who are willing to work but gave up looking for a job because they no longer believe they can find it add up to 5.3 million—4.9 percent, down 6.4 percent from the previous quarter, and 8.7 percent compared to August 2020.