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Continuous PNAD

Unemployment remains in decline and reaches 8.3% in the quarter ended October

Section: Social Statistics | Caio Belandi

November 30, 2022 09h00 AM | Last Updated: December 01, 2022 04h19 PM


Number of employed persons reached 99.7 million, a new record since 2012 - Photo: Helena Pontes/IBGE News Agency

The unemployment rate, which measures unemployment in the country was 8.3% in the quarter ended October. This rate represents a decrease of 0.8 percentage points (p.p.) against the previous quarter (May-July), being the lowest in the period since 2014. Against the same quarter in 2021, the decrease amounted to 3.8%. Data come from the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (Continuous PNAD), released today (30) by the IBGE.

The number of employed persons reached 99.7 million, with an increase of 1% in the quarter, hitting again the record in the time series that started in 2012. “This moment of increase in employment has been observed since the second quarter of 2021. As the end of the year gets closer, a period when there is usually an increase in employment generation, the trend continuues,” says Adriana Beringuy, coordinator of Pnad.

The unemployed population amounted to 9 million persons, which records a decrease of 8.7% from the quarter ended July, a drop of 860 thousand persons. That is the lowest level since 2015. 

As for the employment population ratio – that is, the percentage of employed persons at working age, there was an increase of 0.4 p.p., and reached 57.4%. The compound underutilization rate fell to 19.5%, with a decrease of 1.4 p.p. in the quarter and 6.7 p.p. in the comparison against the same quarter a year ago. The underutilized population dropped (6.7%) and hit 22.7 million persons.

Number of workers with a formal employment contract remains on an upward trend

Continuous PNAD Contínua for the quarter ended October also presents a trend to increase for the number of workers with a formal employment contract. From the previous month, there was an increase of 2.3% (822 thousand persons), having reached 36.6 million. "This index has been on an upward trend for more than a year, which shows not only the job market is now expanding in numerical terms, but also recording increase in the formalization of employment," Ms. Beringuy analyzes.

Usual real earnings also increased, by 2.9% in relation to the previous quarter, having reached R$ 2,754. Among the positions, the highlight are in the group of Workers in the public sector (including statutory civil servants and the military) (3.4%, or R$ 137) and Self employed persons (3.3%, or R$ 69), besides Workers with a formal contract (3.1%, ou R$ 79).

Among the groups, the biggest increases came from Transportation, storage and mailing (6.5%, or R$ 163), Agriculture, livestock, forestry, fishing and aquaculture (5.7%, or R$ 100) and Construction (5.5%, or R$ 114).

PNAD indicates that the record of the time series inusual real wage bill, which reached R$ 269.5 billion, an increase of 4% in the quarter and 11.5% in the annual comparison.

The number of workrs without a formal employment contract in the private sector hit a record in the series, an increase of 2.3% (297 thousand persons) against the previous quarter of 11.8% (1.4 million persons) in the year.

The number of those employed in the public sector hit a record in the time series (12.3 million), having grown 2.3% in the quarter and 10.4% in the year. The informality rate encompassed 39.1% of the employed population, below that in the previous quarter, when it had reached 39.4%, when it was 40.7%. The number of informal workers reached 39.0 million.

More about the survey

The Continuous PNAD is the main instrument to monitor workforce in Brazil. The survey sample per quarter corresponds to 211 thousand households surveyed in Brazil. Nearly two thousand interviewers work in the survey in 26 states and in the Federal District, integrated to the data collection network of more than 500 IBGE branches.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the IBGE implemented data collection by telephone on March 17, 2020. In July 2021, face-to-face data collection was resumed. The id of the interviewers can be confirmed at the Answering the IBGE website or through the Call Center (0800 7218181) by checking their ID numbers, which can be requested by the informants. See PNAD data at Sidra.



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