Unemployment in November reaches 6.1%, the lowest since 2012
Brazil’s unemployment rate reached 6.1 percent in the quarter ending in November. According to the statistics bureau IBGE, this is the lowest rate in this time series, which began in the first quarter of 2012.
The figure is down 0.5 percentage points from the June–August quarter, when it stood at 6.6 percent, and down 1.4 percentage points from the same quarter in 2023, when it was 7.5 percent.
The proportion is equivalent to 6.8 million Brazilians looking for work—the lowest figure since the quarter ending in December 2014. In one quarter, 510 thousand people left unemployment.
The survey also indicates that the unemployment rate reached 8.8 percentage points below the record in this time series—14.9 percent, observed in the quarter ending in September 2020. The number of jobless people is 55.6 percent below the series record of 15.3 million, which was reached in the first quarter of 2021. Both periods were during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Employment
The number of employed people totaled 103.9 million—a new record for Brazil. Previously, this population had fallen to the lowest level in the time series, amounting to 82.6 million in the quarter ending in August 2020. Since then, there has been a surge of 25.8 percent, equivalent to 21.3 million more Brazilians in the labor market.
With the performance of employment in the quarter ending in November, Brazil also has a record among those employed in the private sector—53.5 million—and among workers with a formal contract, who added up to 39.1 million. In the public sector, workers numbered 12.8 million.
According to the figures, once again, the level of employment—the proportion of people aged 14 or over who were working—was also a record high, 58.8 percent.
“The year of 2024 is heading for record expansion in the Brazilian labor market, driven by the growth in the number of formal and informal employees,” said IBGE’s Survey Coordinator Adriana Beringuy.
Another piece of data from the survey is on the number of workers without a formal contract, which did not change significantly in the quarter and remained at 14.4 million. The total number of self-employed workers, in turn, rose by 1.8 percent in the quarter, or 25.9 million, and remained stable throughout the year.
Informal work
At 38.7 percent, the informality rate is equivalent to 40.3 million workers. “This rate is slightly lower than that registered in the previous quarter [38.8%] and was lower than that of the same period in 2023 [39.2%],” the study reads.
Groups
The rise in employment was driven by four of the ten activity groups surveyed. Industry rose by 2.4 percent, or 309 thousand more people; construction expanded by 3.6 percent, 269 thousand more people; public administration, defense, social security, education, human health, and social services advanced by 1.2 percent, 215 thousand more people; and domestic services, with a rise of three percent, employed 174 thousand more people. According to the statistics, the sum of these economic activities represented a gain of 967 thousand workers in the quarter.
“The expansion of employment through various economic activities has allowed both workers in elementary occupations and those in more advanced professional services to be in demand, expanding the general level of employment among the working population,” Adriana Beringuy explained.
Compared to the same period in 2023, the increase was seen in seven groups: general industry (3.6 percent, or 466 thousand more people); construction (6.0 percent, or 440 thousand more people); trade, repair of motor vehicles, and motorcycles (3.6 percent, or 692 thousand more people); transportation, storage, and mail (5.8 percent, or 322 thousand more people); information, communication, and financial, real estate, professional, and administrative activities (4.4 percent, or 548 thousand more people); public administration, defense, social security, education, human health, and social services (4.4 percent, or 790 thousand more people); and other services (five percent, or 270 thousand more people).
“Combined, these seven economic activities gained an additional 3.5 million workers compared to the same period in 2023,” the text says.
In the same comparison, agriculture, livestock, forestry, fishing, and aquaculture fell by 4.4 percent, or 358 thousand fewer people, while the other groups remained stable.
