Small businesses are driving down unemployment and securing the majority of formal jobs.
Brazil registers an unemployment rate of 5,8%, the lowest in 13 years, with more than 60% of new jobs generated by micro and small businesses.
247 - The unemployment rate in Brazil reached 5,8% in the second quarter of 2025, the lowest level recorded since the beginning of the PNAD Contínua historical series, which began in 2012. The data, released this Thursday (31) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), also reveal that the recovery of the labor market has relied heavily on the contribution of small businesses, which led formal hiring during the period.
According to the research, the unemployment rate between April and June fell 1,2 percentage points compared to the first quarter of the year (7,0%) and decreased 1,1 percentage points compared to the same period in 2024. The absolute number of unemployed people was 6,3 million, a reduction of 17,4% compared to the previous quarter. The president of Sebrae, Décio Lima, celebrated the results and highlighted the effects of public inclusion policies: “This is the lowest unemployment rate ever recorded in the country. The whole scenario is favorable. Today marks three days since Brazil was removed from the Hunger Map. And this is a result of the social inclusion policies implemented by President Lula and Vice-President Geraldo Alckmin.”
The IBGE survey also shows that the labor force participation rate rose to 62,4%, while the number of workers with formal employment contracts in the private sector reached 39 million. In this context, small businesses – which include individual micro-entrepreneurs (MEIs), micro-enterprises (MEs), and small businesses – played a decisive role: they are already responsible for more than 635,7 formal employment contracts in 2025, representing more than 60% of the total new formal jobs in the country.
Décio Lima emphasized the leading role of Brazilian entrepreneurs: “These are people who wake up every day and show resilience in their project to make the country grow. They work with their talent and face a system that was not designed for them. This result represents not only more jobs, but also opportunity and inclusion for the population.”
Informality also showed a slight decrease, going from 38% in the first quarter to 37,8% in the second, equivalent to 38,7 million workers without formal employment contracts. Compared to the same period last year, the decline was almost one percentage point (38,7% in 2024). This movement also reflects the growth of formal entrepreneurship: in the first six months of the year, 2,6 million new CNPJs (Brazilian business registration numbers) were registered, according to a survey by Sebrae based on data from the Federal Revenue Service.
Worker income also increased. The average real monthly income reached R$ 3.477, up 1,1% compared to the first quarter and 3,3% compared to the same period in 2024. The total real income mass reached R$ 351,2 billion, representing a 2,9% increase in the quarter.
The numbers reinforce the trend of economic recovery with income distribution and the leading role of small businesses – a sector that is increasingly relevant in the engine of national growth.