HOME > Business

Employment in the manufacturing sector rose in March, according to IBGE.

Total employment in the industry in March 2013 rose 0,2% compared to February; with the seasonally adjusted survey results, the three-month moving average remained stable.

Employment in the manufacturing sector rose in March, according to IBGE.

Vinícius Lisbon
Reporter from Agência Brasil

Rio de Janeiro – The total number of people employed in the industry in March 2013 rose 0,2% compared to February, according to data released today by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics in its Monthly Industrial Employment and Wages Survey (PIMES). With this seasonally adjusted result, the three-month moving average remained stable, as there was no change in February and a 0,1% decrease was recorded in January.

Compared to the same month of the previous year, however, industrial employment registered its 18th consecutive negative result in March, with a drop of 0,6%. The first quarter of 2013 also showed a decline compared to the first three months of 2012, with a reduction of 1%. Despite the negative variations, the monthly rate is the least intense since January 2012 (-0,4%) and the quarterly drop is smaller than that of the last quarter of 2012 (-1,2%). Over the last twelve months, employment has fallen by 1,4%.

Nine of the 14 locations surveyed by IBGE registered a drop in the industrial employment rate in March, with Pernambuco (-6,3%), Bahia (-4,5%), Rio Grande do Sul (-2,3%) and São Paulo (-0,4%) standing out. Paraná, on the other hand, saw an increase of 2%, driven by the food and beverage (7%) and textile (14,3%) sectors.

In the quarterly results, the sectors that contributed most to the 1% drop compared to the previous year were clothing (-6,4%), footwear and leather (-4,8%), and textiles (-5,2%), while food and beverages increased by 1,6% and rubber and plastics by 2,6%.

Editing: Denise Griesinger