5.3%. That was Brazil's unemployment rate in the quarter ending in July, the lowest reading for that period since the statistics agency IBGE began the series in 2012. In plain terms, fewer Brazilians were hunting for a job and more households had a paycheck coming in every month. The figures come from the PNAD Continua household survey, released on Thursday (27).
A year earlier, the rate was 5.6%. In the previous quarter, ending in April, it was 5.8%. In all, 5.8 million people were still out of work, 503,000 fewer than three months before, according to IBGE.
On the other side of the ledger, the country reached 103.3 million people employed, an all-time record. Formal private-sector jobs, those with a signed work card, the document that guarantees labor rights in Brazil, also hit a record at 39.4 million workers. These are employees entitled to paid vacation, a year-end bonus and unemployment insurance.
How the survey works
The PNAD Continua, IBGE's national household survey, visits 211,000 homes across the country and tracks the labor market in rolling quarters, which is why the new reading covers May, June and July. Only people who actually looked for work in the 30 days before the interview count as unemployed.
Formal jobs rise, but informality persists
Not every new job came with protection. Workers without a signed work card totaled 13.8 million, up 477,000 in the quarter, and the informality rate stood at 37.5% of the employed, or 38.8 million people. According to Agencia Brasil, these workers go without benefits such as unemployment insurance, paid vacation and the year-end bonus.
Average monthly income came to R$ 3,762, flat against the previous quarter and 3.3% above a year earlier, about R$ 120 more per month. Total earnings nationwide reached R$ 383.5 billion, the highest in the series. Construction led the quarter, adding 371,000 jobs.
"Most of it happened among bricklayers and basic construction workers," William Kratochwill, the survey's analyst, told Agencia Brasil. He also noted that technology is opening doors in the job market: "These days, with a phone and a bicycle, you can find work."