Unemployment falls to 9.1%, with document of casual staff

The unemployment rate in the quarter from May to July was 9.1%, according to data from the Pnad Contínua (Continuous National Household Sample Survey) released today by the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), which represents 9.9 millions of people. It is the lowest unemployment rate since the quarter ended in December 2015, when it was also 9.1%.

The index for May to July 2022 also represents a drop compared to the previous quarter, driven by the growth in the number of people with informal work, which broke the record of the historical series and reached 13.1 million people.

In the period, informal workers made up 39.8% of the workforce in the country. Included in this group are unregistered workers, self-employed employers without CNPJ, in addition to auxiliary family workers.

Two groups of activities had the largest number of new professionals: “Trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles”, which employed over 692 thousand people, and “Public administration, defense, social security, education, human health and social services”, with 648 thousand people. None of the groups, however, had a fall. Only the sector of “Agriculture, livestock, forestry production, fishing and aquaculture” did not show growth in the employed population.

The average income also had real growth for the first time in two years, reaching R$ 2,693 in the quarter.

According to the coordinator of Household Sample Surveys, Adriana Beringuy, the last time there was significant growth was in the quarter ended in July 2020. The value was 2.9% higher than in the previous quarter. The data show that growth was mainly influenced by an increase in the income of employers, military and statutory civil servants. There was no variation in the other groups.

Difference between Pnad and Caged

This week, the Ministry of Labor released data from the Caged (General Register of Employed and Unemployed), which showed that the country opened 218,900 new jobs in July. The data, however, refer only to contracts governed by the CLT. It is the companies themselves that fill in the information in their own system.

The IBGE’s Pnad is broader, and includes the informal labor market. The survey is done with interviewers, who ask a sample of the population about their work situation.

Methodology

Pnad Contínua is the main instrument for monitoring the workforce in the country. The survey sample per quarter in Brazil corresponds to 211 thousand households surveyed. About two thousand interviewers work on the survey, in 26 states and the Federal District.

Source: Uol