Unemployment rose to 7.9% in the quarter ending in March, according to IBGE | Economy

a Brazil's unemployment rate was 7.9% in the quarter ending Marchaccording to the ongoing National Household Sample Survey (PNAD), released on Tuesday (30) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

With these results, the absolute number of unemployed increased by 6.7% compared to the previous quarter. Reaching 8.6 million people. In the annual comparison, the decrease reached 8.6%.

In the first quarter of 2024, there was a 0.8% decrease in the working population, It is estimated at about 100.2 million people. For the year, the increase was 2.4%, with 2.4 million additional people employed.

According to Adriana Beringoy, coordinator of household surveys at IBGE, the increase in the unemployment rate was due to a decline in employment, in a seasonal movement of the labor force in the first quarter of the year.

This report is being updated.

The proportion of workers among the working-age population – called the occupation level – was estimated at about 57%, a decrease of 0.6 percentage points compared to the previous quarter. Compared with the same period last year, the increase amounted to 0.9 percentage points

The number of people in the labor force (sum of employed and unemployed) increased by 1.5%, to an estimated 108.8 million. The total population outside the force reached 66.9 million, a stable figure compared to the previous period.

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• Unemployment rate: 7.9%
• Number of unemployed: 8.6 million people
• Number of employees: 100.2 million
• Population outside the labor force: 66.9 million
• Disappointed population: 3.6 million
• Official contract employees: 37.98 million
• Employees without a formal contract: 13.4 million
• Self-employed: 25.4 million
• Domestic workers: 5.9 million
• Informal workers: 38.9 million
• Informal activity rate: 38.9%

The signed wallet remains

One of the most prominent positive points in the survey is the maintenance of formal employment at good levels. With 37.984 million employees in this group, there was a historic record for comparable quarters, although statistically the increase represents a plateau.

“The stabilization of formal employment in the private sector, at a quarter of the decline in employment as a whole, is an important sign of continuing gains in the formalization of the working population,” says IBGE's Beringoy.

In employment without a formal contract, there was statistical stability, with a slight decrease in the number during this quarter. There were 13.3 million in the quarter, compared to 13.5 million in the previous quarter — a record for the comparable chain.

Real usual income increased compared to the previous quarter by 1.5%, reaching R$ 3,123. Last year, growth reached 4%.

The usual real income bill was estimated at R$308.3 billion, another record in the historical IBGE series. The result had a slight variation compared to the previous quarter, and increased by 6.6% in the year-over-year comparison.