Unemployment falls and reaches its lowest rate for May since 2002.

Agency Brazil - The unemployment rate in May was 5,8%, representing a slight decrease (0,2 percentage points) compared to April, when the rate was 6%. Compared to the result in May 2011 (6,4%), there was a reduction of 0,6 percentage points. The rate recorded in May of this year is the lowest for the month since 2002, when the historical series of the Monthly Employment Survey (PME) began.

The survey figures, released today (21) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), also show that the average real usual income of the employed population, which was R$ 1,725,6 in May, did not change in the month-to-month comparison. Compared to May 2011, there was an increase of 4,9%.

According to IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), in May the unemployed population, which totaled 1,4 million people, remained stable compared to the previous month, and fell 7,1% compared to May 2011. This means that in one year there were 107 fewer unemployed people in the country's metropolitan regions. Meanwhile, the employed population, at 23 million, increased by 1,2% compared to April and 2,5% compared to May of last year, representing an additional 554 people with jobs.

There was also no change, compared to April, in the number of workers with formal employment contracts in the private sector – around 11,2 million. However, in the annual comparison, an additional 427 formal jobs were registered, an increase of 3,9%.

The Monthly Employment Survey is conducted in the metropolitan regions of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, Salvador, and Recife. Among these, the capital of Bahia registered the highest unemployment rate in May (8%), while the lowest level was observed in Porto Alegre (4,5%). In Rio, the rate was 5,2%; in São Paulo, 6,2%; in Recife, 5,9%; and in Belo Horizonte, 5,1%.

Like the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), the Inter-Union Department of Statistics and Socioeconomic Studies (Dieese) and the State System of Data Analysis Foundation (Fundação Seade) jointly publish a monthly survey on unemployment in the country. However, the rates presented in the two surveys are usually different, due to the concepts and methodology used.

Among the differences is the set of regions surveyed. Unlike the IBGE's work, the Employment and Unemployment Survey (PED), conducted by Dieese and the Seade Foundation, does not include the survey of unemployed people in the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro. Similarly, the PME does not include two regions that are part of the PED's scope: Fortaleza and the Federal District.