In 2017, of the 91,449,000 employed persons, 14.4% (13,137,000 persons) were union members, down 3.2% from 2016 and the lowest rate since the beginning of the time series in 2012. The largest rate in 2017 occurred among employees in the public sector (27.3%), followed by employees in the private sector with a formal contract (19.2%). Self-employed workers had one of the largest declines in the unionization rate in the time series, from 11.3% in 2012 to 8.6% in 2017.

Of the 27,338 thousand employed persons as employers or self-employed in 2017, 5.8% (1,589 thousand) were associated with a labor or production cooperatives and the highest association rate was in the activity of Agriculture, forestry, fishing and aquaculture (46.1%).

In 2017, 28.0% of those employed as employers or self-employed were in enterprises registered in the CNPJ, a rate lower than that of 2016 (28.9%). From 2016 to 2017, the largest falls occurred in Services (from 36.9% to 34.2%), General Industry (from 29.6% to 27.1%) and Trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (from 43.8% to 42.5%).

While among the self-employed workers in 2017, 18.5% were registered in the CNPJ, this percentage was 80.0% among the employers. The activity of Trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles reached the greatest coverage percentage: 27.1% for self-employed workers and 90.3% for employers.

In 2017, 51.5% of the employed persons in the private sector (except for domestic workers) were in low-size enterprises (1 to 5 persons) and 26.1% were in enterprises with 51 or more persons.

The employed population in the private sector in Brazil worked mainly in establishments of the enterprise itself (63.0% or 46.5 million persons) in places set by the employer, boss or client (12.5%) and in farms, barns, etc (11.1%). Access the support material of this survey on the right size of this page. Additional Labor Force Characteristics are on the right of this page.

Union membership rate of 14.4% id the lowest since 2012

In 2017, of the 91,449 thousand persons who were employed in the reference week of the survey, 14.4% (13,137 thousand persons) were union members. This is the lowest unionization rate since the beginning of the time series in 2012 (16.2%).

From 2015 to 2016, the drop in the employed population was 1.5% (-1.435 thousand persons), while the number of unionized workers was 7.4% (-1.082 thousand persons). Almost half of the reduction of union membership came from the General industry (-506 thousand persons). In 2017, despite the slight recovery of the employed population, it did not interrupt the reduction of the contingent of union associations (decrease of 3.2% in relation to 2016).

Regionally, the North Region had the lowest estimate (12.6%) and the South, the highest (16.2%). All Major Regions had reduction from 2015 to 2016. That also occurred between 2016 and 2017, except for the Central-West Region, which recovered the indicator.  The South Region had one of the biggest percentages in all years, but also was the one which had the major reduction in this indicator between 2012 (20.3%) and 2017 (16.2%).

Public sector has the biggest proportion of unionized workers

The greatest union membership rate in 2017 occurred for employees in the public sector (27.3%). This group represented 12.4% of the total employed population (11,339 thousand persons).  Next, came the employees in the private sector with a formal contract,  with a rate of 19.2%. They had the biggest participation in the employed population in 2017 (36.3% or 33,195 thousand persons).

The self-employedworkers had one of the greatest drops in the union membership rate in the time series, from 11.3% in 2012 to 8.6% in 2017.  This group represents the second biggest participation in the employed population *(25.3% or 23,105 thousand persons).

From 2016 to 2017, the biggest fall in the unionization rate occurred among Contributing family workers (from 14.7% to 11.5%), followed by Employers (from 17.4% to 15.6%) and  by Self-employed  workers (from 9.7% to 8.6%). The domestic workers has the lowest union membership rate (3.1%) , followed by  employees in the private sector without a formal contract (5.1); those two groups represented, respectively, 6.8% and 12.2% of the employed population.

In 2017, by groups of activity,  Public administration, defense and social security, education, human health and social services had the highest unionization rate (23.6%) in 2017, followed by  Agriculture, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture  (21.1%). Lodging and food  had the highest growth of employed persons (10.6%), with an increase of 499 thousand people, but reduced even more their unionization rate, from 7.6% in 2016 to 6.8% in 2017. General industry , despite the expansion in relation to 2016 (from 12.6% to 13.0% of the total employed population), did not offset the unionization rate of previous years, reaching 17.1%.

Compared to 2012, the groups of activity of  General industry  (-4.0 percentage points) and  Transportation, storage and mailing activities  (-3.3 percentage points) had the main falls of the unionization rate. Other services and Domestic services were the only ones not to present decrease in the indicator of this comparison.

Piauí and Maranhão lead the unionization rates

With rates of, respectively, 22.9% and 20.0%, Piauí and Maranhão are the Federation Units with the highest proportion of union members, followed by Espírito Santo (18.5%), Rio Grande do Sul (18.2%), Santa Catarina (18.2%) and the Federal District (18.1%). The lowest indexes were in Roraima (9,6%), Tocantins (9,5%), Rio de Janeiro (9,3%) e Alagoas (8,2%).

Schooling level 31.3% of the unionized workers have complete higher education

In 2017, 27.6% of the employed population were either Uneducated or without complete primary education . Among the unionized employed workers such schooling level reached 22.3%. Complete secondary education and incomplete higher degree presented the highest proportion, both in employed in general (38.3%), as well as among the employed who were union members (36.3%). Complete higher education accounted for 18.5% of the employed.; however, among the employed who were union members, 31.3% had that level of schooling.

Men are the majority in the night shift

In 2017, of the 91,449 thousand persons employed in the country, 92.5% worked only in the day shift (between 5:00 am and 10:00 pm on the same day). In 2017, 94.6% of the employed women worked this shift, while among men this proportion was 90.9%.

Cooperative associates are 5.8% among employers and self-employed workers

In 2017, of the 27,338 thousand employed persons as employers or self-employed workers, 5.8% (1,589 thousand) were associated to a labor or production cooperative. The South Region had the highest percentage of cooperative workers (10.3%), followed by the North Region (6.3%). In Santa Catarina, this percentage reached 13.5%, followed by Rio Grande do Sul, with 9.9%, and Rondônia, with 8.7%. The lowest rates were found in Pernambuco (3.2%), Goiás (3.1%) and Rio Grande do Norte (2.5%). The Northeast (4.8%) and Southeast (4.8%) were the only regions that did not show a negative change in this estimate, while in the Center-West the largest reduction occurred, from 5.7% to 4.9% .

Among the groups of activities,  Agriculture, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture  had the highest estimate (46.1%). Then, with similar proportions, were  Trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles  (12,0%),  Information, communication and financial, real estate, professional and administrative activities (11.0%) and  Transportation, storage and mailing activities  (10.9%). The lowest estimate was in Construction (2.5%)

By sex, the percentage of members of the cooperative of work or production was higher among men (6.7%) than among women (4.1%).

With a 28% coverage rate, CNPJ registration interrupts growth

In 2012, 23.9% of the employed persons as employers or self-employed were in businesses registered in the CNPJ. This percentage increased on a annual basis, reaching 28.9% in 2016, but if fell to 28.0% in 2017.

Throughout the series, the registrations in the CNPJ were higher among women, mainly in 2013, with a 2.8 pp difference.  In 2017, the difference rose to 1.0 percentage points for women (28.7%) compared to men (27.7%), due to the sharper reduction in the number of registrations among women (-1.3 percentage points) than among men (-0.7 percentage points).

The North Region presented a percentage of the CNPJ registration around 12.0% along the whole series. The Northeast Region showed a growth trend, reaching 15.9% in 2017. The South and Southeast Regions, with the highest values of the indicator, had a growth trend up to 2016, but decreased to 34.6% and 38.1%, respectively, in 2017.

 From 2016 to 2017, the highest drops in the CNPJ coverage rate occurred in the activities which concentrated the larger part of the employed population: Services, dropping from 36.9% to 34.2%; General industry, from 29.6% to 27.1% and Trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles,  from 43.8% to 42.5%.

Proportion of employers with CNPJ is four times bigger than that of the self-employed

In 2017, 18.5% of the employed (4.3 million persons) as self-employed had CNPJ; among employers, this coverage was 80.0% (3.4 million persons). The North Region had the lowest estimates for both populations (7.4% and 58.0%, respectively), while the South had the highest (25.9% and 87.2%).

In relation to the percentage of workers with CNPJ, the activity of Agriculture, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture  presented the lowest rate in 2017, both among self-employed workers (3.9%) and employers (33.7%). Conversely,Trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles reached the highest percentage (27.1% for self-employed and 90.3% for employers).

From 2016 to 2017, the main drops in the CNPJ coverage among employers were in General industry (from 89.2% to 86.4%) and in Services (from 85.8% to 81.8%). For the self-employed, retractions were higher in the  Trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (from 28.4% to 27.1%) and in Services (from 26.9% to 25.3% %).

The CNPJ coverage rate grew with the increase of the level of schooling. Even son, the greater coverage among the self-employed (42.7% of those with complete higher education) did not reach the lowest coverage rate of the employers (57.0% for the uneducated and those with incomplete primary education).

Most of the employed persons in in the private sector work in low size enterprises

In the time series, a large part of the employed persons (except those employed in the public sector and domestic workers) were in small enterprises (1 to 5 persons), with 50.1% in 2016 and reaching 51.5% (38 million of people) in 2017. Another important group was in enterprises with 51 or more people, which stood at 26.1% in 2017 (reaching 30.5% in 2013 and 2014).

 In the period from 2012-2017, there was increase in the percentage of the employed in low size enterprises in all Major Regions. In 2017, this percentage was of 68.2% in the North Region, 62.9% in the Northeast, 51.0% in the Central-West, 47.9% in the South and 44.5% in the Southeast.  From 2016 to 2017, Southeast and Northeast registered the highest growth (2.4 and 1.2 percentage points, respectively) of this proportion.

The enterprises with 51 or more persons had the highest percentage in the Southeast Region (31.9%) and the lowest in the North (14.9%). Compared to 2012, there was a reduction in the percentage of employed persons in a project with 51 or more people in all Major Regions, mainly in the North (reduction of 5.9 percentage points).

Northeast concentrates the largest reductions of farm workers

The employed population in the private sector in Brazil, in 2017, worked mainly in establishments of the enterprise itself (63.0% or 46.5 million persons), in places set by the employer, boss or client (12.5%) and in farms, barns, etc (11.1% or 8 million persons).

In relation to 2016, residential establishments had the largest growth (16.1%), with expansion of 443 thousand persons, which totaled 3.2 million persons working at home in 2017 (4.3%).

 In 2012, 3.9 million persons (22.4%) worked on a farms, barns and the like in the Northeast, reaching 2.7 million (16.2%) in 2017. This reduction of 1.2 million persons accounted for 76.0% of the national drop of 1.5 million persons employed on farms, barns and the like from 2012 to 2017.