The unemployment rate for the moving quarter ending in January 2024 was 7.6%, the same percentage as the previous moving quarter (from August to October 2023). Compared to the same period in 2023, the unemployment rate fell 0.7 percentage points. As a result, the unemployed population, that is, those who were looking for work, reached 8.3 million, remaining stable in the quarterly comparison and decreasing 7.8% (703 thousand less persons) in the year. The data are from the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (Pnad Contínua), released today (29) by the IBGE.

This stability in the rate and number of unemployed persons in the quarterly comparison can be explained by the seasonality of the labor market, with unemployment reducing at the end of the year and increasing in the first months of the following year. For the coordinator of IBGE Household Surveys, Adriana Beringuy, “There is a seasonal trend. In some years, this seasonality may be stronger or weaker. As we entered the year 2024, what we saw was stability, precisely because the unemployed population did not expand so significantly in the quarter ending in January 2024.”
 
The country's employed population reached 100.6 million workers, with increases of 0.4% (or 387 thousand more persons) compared to the last comparable moving quarter and 2.0% (or 1.957 million more persons) in the year. The activity groups that drove the increase in the quarterly comparison were Transportation, Storage and Mailing (4.5%, or 247 thousand more persons), Information, Communication and Financial, Real Estate, Professional and Administrative Activities (1.9%, or 241 thousand more persons) and Other Services (3.1%, or 164 thousand more persons).

Adriana observes that “In the Continuous PNAD time series, we tend to have stability in the employed population in the quarter ending in January, or even a drop in this population, a fact that is not occurring now, in 2024. On the contrary, we see an expansion of employment ”.

Logistics, IT and Employee leasing help employment increase

Compared to the same moving quarter of 2023, the three groups on the rise were Transportation, Storage and Mailing (7.5%, or 404 thousand more persons), Information, Communication and Financial, Real Estate, Professional and Administrative Activities (6.6%, or 788 thousand more persons) and Public Administration, Defense, Social Security, Education, Human Health and Social Services (3.4%, or 591 thousand more persons). On the other hand, employment in the Agriculture, Livestock, Forestry, Fishing and Aquaculture group fell in both comparisons: -6.0% (or 503 thousand less persons) compared to the last comparable moving quarter and -6.9% (or 582 thousand less persons) compared to the same moving quarter of 2023.

According to the Continuous PNAD analyst, the groups of activities of Transportation, Storage and Mailing, the Information, Communication and Financial Activities, Real Estate, Professional and Administrative Activities sector, and also the Other Services sector contributed to the increase in the employed population: “Within these three sectors, road transportation of cargo, storage and logistics services, financial and real estate activities, in addition to professional services, such as employee leasing and outsourcing, stood out.” These increases, for Ms. Beriguy, made up for the jobs lost in Agriculture, “mainly in corn, cassava and coffee crops”.

The number of employees with a work contract in the private sector reached 38.0 million, an increase of 0.9% (or 335 thousand more workers with a formal contract) in the quarter and 3.1% (or more 1.1 million ) in the year.

For Ms. Beringuy, the high in employment in some groups of activities also influenced the increase in employment with a formal contract, “including the rise in transportation, storage and mailing, where jobs with and without a formal contract grew, and also in administrative professional activities ”.

The number of employees without a formal contract in the private sector (13.4 million) remained stable in the quarter and grew 2.6% (335 thousand more persons) in the year. Moreover, stability in both comparisons stood out for self-employed workers (25.6 million persons), domestic workers (5.9 million persons) and employers (4.2 million persons).

Public administration and domestic services drive earnings up

The usual real average earnings of workers reached R$3,078 in the moving quarter ending in January 2024, with an increase of 1.6% in the quarter and 3.8% in the year, already discounting the effects of inflation in these periods. The increase in the quarterly comparison was driven by increases in the earnings of Public Administration, Defense, Social Security, Education, Human Health and Social Services (2.2%, or R$94 more) and Domestic Services (2.5%, or R$ 28 more).

Ms. Beringuy notes that the increase in the usual average earnings of the employed population in this moving quarter “was driven by the formal public sector. In the private sector, the increase in earnings was in the categories of workers without a formal contract and domestic workers without a formal contract, more informal segments”.

In the annual comparison, there was an increase in earnings from Industry (5.3%, or R$152 more), Trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (5.2%, or R$125 more), Transportation, storage and mailing (5.0%, or R$140 more), Public administration, defense, social security, education, human health and social services (3.2%, or  R$133 more) and Domestic services (2.8%, or R$ 32 more).

Furthermore, as the average income and the number of workers continued to grow, total earnings rose 2.1% compared to the previous quarter and 6.0% in the annual comparison, reaching R$ 305.1 billion, a new record for the Continuous PNAD time series, started in 2012.

More about the survey

The Continuous PNAD is the main instrument for monitoring the workforce in the country. The survey sample by quarter in Brazil corresponds to 211 thousand households surveyed. Around two thousand interviewers work on the survey, in 26 states and the Federal District, integrated into the collection network of more than 500 IBGE agencies.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the IBGE implemented the collection of survey information by telephone on March 17, 2020. In July 2021, in-person collection was resumed. Respondents can confirm the identity of IBGE interviewers on the website Respondendo ao IBGE or via Call Center (0800 721 8181), checking data such as registration number, ID or CPF.

You can also consult PNAD data on Sidra database. The next release of the Continuous Monthly PNAD, for the quarter ending in February, will be on March 28th.

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