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Brazil: Unemployment rate reaches 5.2%, lowest since 2012

The number of employed people hit a record 103.2 million
Agência Brasil - Rio de Janeiro
Published on 30/12/2025 - 11:00
Agência Brasil - Rio de Janeiro
Construção Civil, Obras, canteiro de obras, construção, trabalhadores
© Arquivo/Tânia Rêgo/Agência Brasil

The unemployment rate in the quarter ending in November stood at 5.2 percent, according to data released by the Brazilian government’s statistics agency IBGE.

This is the lowest rate since 2012, as measured by the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (Continuous Pnad).

According to IBGE, from September to November, 5.6 million people were unemployed - the lowest number ever recorded by the survey.

Throughout the historical series, the largest contingent of unemployed occurred in the quarter ending in March 2021, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when this indicator registered 14.9 million people without formal employment.

Employment

The lowest unemployment rate in the historical series was also accompanied by a new record in employment in the country, at 103.2 million, IBGE data show.

The employment level - that is, the proportion of people aged 14 or older who were working - reached the highest percentage in the historical series of the Continuous Pnad: 59.0 percent.