In Lula's first year in office, the unemployment rate fell and Brazilians' income increased.
The unemployment rate in Brazil fell to its lowest level since 2015, and the average real income of workers reached R$ 3.078, a 3,8% increase in the year.
Reuters - The rate of Unemployment in Brazil stood at 7,6%. In the quarter ending in January, growth was below expectations, but workers saw an increase in real income in a labor market that remains strong.
The result for the period matched the rate recorded in the three months immediately preceding it, up to October 2023, and showed a decrease compared to the rate of 8,4% for the same period of the previous year, according to data released this Thursday by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).
In a labor market that has been showing a recovery trend since the pandemic, the reading from the National Household Sample Survey (PNAD) was still below the Reuters poll expectation of a rate of 7,8%. However, it showed an increase compared to the 7,4% rate seen in the fourth quarter.
After tracking the strength of the economy throughout 2023, analysts believe that the unemployment rate will remain low for some time, although it is expected to increase given the anticipated slowdown in activity this year.
In any case, a strong labor market tends to favor household consumption, raising concerns about inflation, especially in the services sector.
In the quarter ending in January, the average real income of workers reached 3.078 reais, an increase of 1,6% compared to the previous quarter and 3,8% year-on-year.
During this period, the number of unemployed rose 0,4% compared to the quarter ending in October, reaching 8,292 million people, but registered a decrease of 7,8% compared to the same period of the previous year.
The total number of employed people rose 0,4% to 100,593 million, a 2,0% increase compared to the period from November to January 2023. The highlights among the sectors in the quarterly comparison were Transportation, storage and mail (+4,5%), Information, Communication and Financial, Real Estate, Professional and Administrative Activities (+1,9%), and Other services (+3,1%).
IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) assesses that there was stability in both the unemployment rate and the number of unemployed in the quarterly comparison, amidst the seasonality of the labor market, in which a reduction in unemployment is expected at the end of the year and an increase in the first months of the following year.
"There is a seasonal trend. In some years, this seasonality may be greater or lesser. At the beginning of 2024, what we are seeing is stability, precisely because the unemployed population did not expand as significantly in the quarter ending in January 2024," assesses Adriana Beringuy, coordinator of Household Surveys at IBGE.
The number of workers with formal employment contracts in the private sector totaled 37,950 million in the three months to January, a 0,9% increase over the previous quarter, while those without formal contracts rose 1,0% to 13,443 million.