PNAD Contínua
Unemployment decreases in 5 states and increases in Roraima, only; Northeast Region has highest rate
November 14, 2018 09h00 AM | Last Updated: November 14, 2018 01h44 PM
The decrease of the national unemployment rate to 11.9% in the quarter ended September was concentrated in only five Federation Units (Rio de Janeiro, Ceará, Minas Gerais, Tocantins and Mato Grosso), whereas Roraima was rhe only state to record a hike in the period, of 13.5%. Among the Major Regions, the Northeast still has the highest rate, 14.4%, while the South recorded 7.9% in the same period. These data come from the Contnuous National Household Sample Surbey, released today by the IBGE.
Rio de Janeiro (14.6%, -0.8 percentage points), Ceará (10.6%, -1,1 percentage points), Minas Gerais (9.7%, - 1.1 percentage points), Tocantins (9.8%, -1.6 percentage points) and Mato Grosso (6.7%, -1.8 percentage points) accounted for the decrease in the national unemployment rate, once 21 Federation Units remained stable. The only state to have a worse performance in the index, Roraima recorded an increase of 2.3 p.p. against the previous quarter.
“An important aspect is the rise of unemployment rate in Roraima. It is an unusual result compared to that of other regions. Most of them remain stable and five recording decreases; other ones are stable but on a downward trend. Versus figures of last year, the rate of Roraima increased even more (4.6 p.p.)”, according to Cimar Azeredo, IBGE coordinator of Labor and Income.
The survey shows that persons with a formal contract recorded an increase of 10% in Roraima. As stated by Cimar, unemployment increased due to the reduction of work with a formal contract, once there was no change in relation to those without a formal contract: “that is an alert, a decrease from 41 thousand to 37 thousand positions against the previous quarter. That is a significant fall, mainly affecting trade, which lost five thousand positions”, he adds.
There were negative changes in unemployment rate in all the areas, but the significant ones came from the Southeast (-0.7 percentage points) and Central West (-0.6 percentage points). The Northeast keeps the highest rate (14.4%), in spite of the negative change of 0.4 percentage points in comparison with figures of latest quarters. The second highest rate was that of the Southeast (12.5%), followed by the North (11.5%), Central West (8.9%) and South (7.9%).
The underutilization rate of workforce fell in the Southeast (21.1%, -0.6 percentage points) against the previous quarter, and the major decrease was that of the Central West (17.2%, -1 percentage points). Other Major Regions remained stable, although the Northeast (35.6%) recorded a negative change of 0.5 percentage points against the previous quarter. The South (14.8%) and North (27.4%) repeated the rates recorded in the previous period.
The number of discouraged persons, that is, persons who have given up looking for a job, remained stable in the five Major Regions. Espírito Santo was the only sate not to record stability, and had a hike of 40.8% in this group against the previous quarter, amounting to 45 thousand persons.
Nevertheless, the number of discouraged persons was on an upward trend. “Rondônia, Acre, Tocantins, Maranhão, Ceará, Pernambuco, Paraíba, Rio de Janeiro and Espírito Santo had a record number of discouraged persons, in fact”, Cimar adds.
He also highlights the maintenance of unequalities by color and sex, with a higher unemployment rate among the black and brown population: “14.6% of the black population was unemployed, versus 9.4% of the white population”. Among women the rate was 13.6%, and among men, 10.5%: “there are still more unemployed women than men, but figures are closer now. The crisis has had a negative effect on all results”.
