In a country with a strong informal economy, the number of households without income from work is growing.

Current Brazil Network - Unlike the propaganda prior to the labor "reform," which claimed that it was necessary to change the law for the country to create jobs again, the market only showed a slight reaction, once again demonstrating little dynamism. Growth, when it occurs, is only in informal sectors of the economy. One in four jobs is part-time or intermittent work. The data comes from an analysis by the Institute for Applied Economic Research (Ipea), released this Wednesday (20), with an aggravating factor: the number of households without any income from work is growing. There are 16 million homes without income from work, out of a total of almost 72 million households.

According to Ipea, the "slow recovery of the labor market – reflected in the maintenance of a high and persistent unemployment rate, mainly among the less educated –" leads to an increase in the number of households with no income from work or very low income. In the fourth quarter of 2017, according to information from the National Household Sample Survey (PNAD, IBGE), in 21,5% of the locations surveyed, no one had performed any paid activity. This percentage rose to 22,2% in the same period of 2018. It was 18,6% at the end of 2013.

"These families may have other income, such as retirement benefits or income from social programs, but none from work," says one of the study's authors, Maria Andréia Lameiras, a researcher at the Ipea's Conjuncture Group. Regarding households with low income, the share rose from 29,8% to 30,1% in the same comparison period. It was 27,5% in the last quarter of 2013.

The data analyzed by the institute also points to a growth in wage inequality. In the fourth quarter of 2014, household income in the highest bracket (above R$ 16 per month) was 27,8 times greater than the average income in the very low bracket (less than R$ 1.601,18). By the end of last year, the proportion had increased: it was 30,3 times greater.

The Gini index, which measures inequality, rose from 0,514 in the last quarter of 2014 to 0,533 in the same period last year, in the case of household income from work. The closer to zero, the lower the inequality. In individual income, the index went from 0,495 to 0,509.

Brazil has approximately 12,7 million unemployed people, "who have been remaining in this situation for increasingly longer periods," says Ipea, noting that young workers continue to be the most affected. In the most recent period, unemployment has grown mainly among workers with lower levels of education. Those with secondary or higher education have had more success in finding new jobs.