The unemployment rate in the first quarter increased in 12 states and remained stable in the other states, compared to the fourth quarter of last year. The highest rates were found in Bahia (18.7%), Amapá (17.2%), Alagoas and Roraima (16.5%), while the lowest, in Santa Catarina (5.7%), Mato Grosso do Sul ( 7.6%) and Paraná (7.9%).

The biggest increases in unemployment were in Maranhão (3.9 percentage points), Alagoas (2.9 pp) and Rio Grande do Norte (2.7 pp). The data are from the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (Continuous PNAD), released today (15) by IBGE.

In 15 Federation Units, unemployment surpassed the national average of 12.2%. The country had 12.9 million persons without work in the first quarter, as already reported by the Institute.

The survey also points out that inequalities remained sharp in different segments of society in the first quarter of the year. Among people who declared themselves black and brown, unemployment increased from 13.5% and 12.6%, in the fourth quarter, to 15.2% and 14%, respectively, while that of white people rose from 8.7% to 9.8%. The unemployment rate was estimated at 10.4% for men and 14.5% for women.

Among young people aged 18 to 24, unemployment rose from 23.8% in the last quarter of 2019 to 27.1%. In the Northeast, unemployment for this age group reached 34.1%. According to survey analyst Ms. Adriana Beringuy, unemployment is expected to increase in the first quarter, due to layoffs of temporary workers hired at the end of the year.

“Most of the temporary workers dismissed at the beginning of the year are young people, which makes the drop in the level of employment be greater in this range”, explains Ms. Beringuy.

Regarding the time spent looking for a job, the survey shows that 45.5% of the unemployed spent from one month to one year in job search; 23.9%, two years or more; 12.6%, one year to less than two years; and 18%, less than a month. In the country, 3.1 million people have been looking for work for 2 years or more.

Informality is greater in Pará and Maranhão

The informality rate went from 41% to 39.9% in the country and, among the Federation Units, the highest rates were registered in Pará (61.4%) and Maranhão (61.2%) and the lowest in Santa Catarina (26.6%) and the Federal District (29.8%).

Although the informality rate has remained stable in 18 states, it was above the national average rate (39.9%) in these places, varying from 41.2% in Goiás to 61.4% in Pará. In 11 of these In 18 states, informality exceeded 50% and only the Federal District (29.6%) and Santa Catarina (27.3%) had informality rates below 30%.

“Informality declined because there was a reduction in the two populations that comprise it - employees without a foraml labor contract in the private sector and self-employed workers - due to the layoffs of those employed in the fourth quarter. This means that workers without a labor contract and those who are self-employed are not being absorbed by the formal market ”, analyzes the survey manager.

In order to calculate the informality rate of the employed population, the survey considers as informal employees in the private sector those without a formal contract, domestic employees without a formal contract, employers without a CNPJ registration, self-employed workers without a CNPJ registration and auxiliary family workers.

Underutilization advances in ten states

The Continuous PNAD Contínua also points out that the compound rate of labor underutilization (percentage of unemployed people, or time-related underemployed persons or persons in the potential workforce in relation to the extended workforce), which nationally reached 24.4%, rose in ten states, remaining stable in the other 17.

The Northeast was the region with the largest measures of labor underutilization and, in the South Region, the lowest. Among the states, the highest rates were in Piauí (45%), Maranhão (41.9%), Bahia (39.9%), Rio Grande do Norte (36.5%), Sergipe (35.9%), whereas Paraíba (35.1%). Santa Catarina (10.0%), Mato Grosso (14.8%) and Rio Grande do Sul (15.9%), had the lowest rates.

The number of discouraged workers was 4.8 million people, with a highlight to Bahia (774 thousand), which accounted for 16.3% of the national contingent. The percentage of the discouraged workers (in relation to the population in the workforce or discouraged population) in the first quarter of 2019 was 4.3%, growing 0.2% in comparison with the fourth quarter of 2019 and stable in relation to the first quarter of 2019. Maranhão (17.8%) and Alagoas (15.5%) had the highest percentages and Santa Catarina (0.8%) and Rio de Janeiro (1.2%), the lowest.

The Federation Units with the highest percentage of self-employed workers were Amapá (39.5%), Pará (35.2%) and Amazonas (34.3%) - all above the national average of 26.2% - the lowest percenatges were in the Federal District (19.3%), São Paulo (21.9%) and Santa Catarina (22.9%).

Data collection by phone

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and based on the guidelines of the Ministry of Health, the IBGE interrupted the face-to-face collection of all surveys on March 17, 2020. Since then, a contingency plan has been instituted to proceed with the collection of information by phone.

The telephone number of some households previously visited by the IBGE are already part of the Continuous PNAD database. By matching the list of households in the survey with the database available at the Institute itself and several actions implemented in the 27 states, telephone numbers are being obtained in order to proceed with the carrying out of the survey.