The Brazilian annual unemployment rate (6.6%) dropped 1.2 percentage points against the result of 2023 (7.8%). The downward trend in 2024 was followed by all the Brazilian Major Regions and by most (22) of the Federation Units. The data came from the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (Continuous PNAD), released today (14) by the IBGE.

The highest rates were recorded in Bahia (10.8%), Pernambuco (10.8%) and Federal District (9.6%). The lowest rates were in Mato Grosso (2.6%), Santa Catarina (2.9%) and Rondônia (3.3%).

Fourteen Federation Units hit their lowest annual unemployment rate in the time series of the survey. They were Rio Grande do Norte (8.5%), Amazonas (8.4%), Amapá (8.3%), Alagoas (7.6%), Maranhão (7.1%), Ceará (7.0%), Acre (6.4%), São Paulo (6.2%), Tocantins (5.5%), Minas Gerais (5.0%), Espírito Santo (3.9%), Mato Grosso do Sul (3.9%), Santa Catarina (2.9%) and Mato Grosso (2.6%).

"The drop in the unemployment rate in the states reflects the expansion of jobs in several economic activities, like trade, industry, transportation and logistics, and construction along 2024," highlights Adriana Beringuy, IBGE´s Coordinator of Household Sample Surveys.
The average annual underutilization rate in Brazil stayed at 16.2%. Piauí (32.7%) registered the highest rate, followed by Bahia (28.9%) and Alagoas (26.4%), whereas the lowest annual rates were in Santa Catarina (5.5%), Rondônia (7.0%) and Mato Grosso (7.7%).

The average annual informality rate for Brazil was 39.0% of the employed population. The highest annual averages were in Pará (58.1%), Piauí, (56.6%) and Maranhão (55.3%) and the lowest ones, in Santa Catarina (26.4%), Federal District (29.6%) and São Paulo (31.1%).
Lastly, the annual average usual real earnings from all jobs hit R$3,225. The highest averages were in Federal District (R$5,043), São Paulo (R$3,907) and Paraná (R$3,758). The lowest averages were in Maranhão (R$2,049), Ceará (R$2,071) and Bahia (R$2,165).

In the fourth quarter of 2024, unemployment falls in the South and remains stable in the other Brazilian Major Regions

The stability of the Brazilian unemployment rate, which changed from 6.4% in the third quarter of 2024 to 6.2% in the fourth one, was followed by four out of five Brazilian regions, though only the South Region, which reduced from 4.1% to 3.6%, reported a statistically-significant drop. The Northeast Region remained with the highest unemployment rate among the regions (8.6%).

The stable scenarion of the unemployment rate in the fourth quarter was followed by 24 out of 27 Federation Units. The three states that dropped were Rio Grande do Sul, reducing from 5.1% to 4.5%; Minas Gerais, retreating from 5.0% to 4.3%, and Paraná, changing from 4.0% to 3.3%.

In the fourth quarter of 2024, the highest unemployment rates were registered in Pernambuco (10.2%), Bahia (9.9%) and Federal District (9.1%), the last one, together with Rio de Janeiro (8.2%), the only states outside the North and Northeast regions on the list of the 16 Federation Units with unemployment rates higher than the national average in the quarter (6.2%). The lowest rates were in Mato Grosso (2.5%), Santa Catarina (2.7%) and Rondônia (2.8%).

The informality rate (38.6%) was more intense in the states of the North and Northeast regions. Among the Federation Units, the highest informality rate was registered in Pará (57.6%). Other states with rates over 50% were Maranhão (56.8%), Piauí (54.9%), Ceará (53.3%), Amazonas (52.1%), Bahia (51.2%) and Paraíba (50.1%). On the other hand, Santa Catarina (25.6%), Federal District (29.0%) and São Paulo (30.3%) recorded the lowest informality rates in Brazil.

In the fourth quarter, 73.4% of those employed in the private sector had a formal contract. The North (60.3%) and Northeast (58.1%) regions reported the lowest estimates of that indicator. Among the Federation Units, the highest rates were registered in Santa Catarina (87.9%), São Paulo (81.2%) and Rio Grande do Sul (79.9%). Piauí (50.9%), Maranhão (52.3%) and Pará (54.4%) were the states with the lowest parcel of persons employed with a formal contract.
Unemployment rate of women was 7.6%, whereas that of men was 5.1%.

The unemployment rate by sex was 5.1% for men and 7.6% for women in the fourth quarter of 2024. The unemployment rate by color or race was below the national average for white persons (4.9%) and above for black (7.5%) and brown (7.0%) persons.

The unemployment rate for persons with incomplete secondary education (10.3%) was higher than those of the other schooling levels. Among persons with incomplete higher education, the rate was 6.6%, twice as that observed for complete higher education (3.3%).

Nearly 1.4 million look for a job for at least two years

In the fourth quarter of 2024, nearly 1.4 million persons looked for a job for two years or more, which is equivalent to 20.1% of the unemployed population. That contingent fell 8.6% in relation to the same period in 2023, when 1.8 million persons were in this situation. Other 3.3 million persons, or 47.9% of the unemployed persons, were looking for a job for one month to less than a year. That group dropped 13.0% over the fourth quarter of 2023.

Stable in other regions, average earnings grow in South Region
The usual average earnings in Brazil were of R$3,315 in the fourth quarter of 2024. It grew both in relation to the immediately previous quarter (R$3,268) and to the same quarter a year ago (R$3,178).
In the comparison between the third quarter of 2024 and the fourth quarter of 2024, the South Region was the only one to register a statistically-significant expansion of the earnings (from R$3,611 to R$3,704), whereas the others remained stable. In relation to the fourth quarter of 2023, the Northeast, Southeast and South regions expanded and the others remained stable.

Estimated at R$339.5 billion, the real average wage bill from all Brazilian jobs grew over the previous quarter (R$332.0 billion) and grew when compared with the fourth quarter of 2023 (R$316.1 billion).
In regional terms, the Southeast Region recorded the highest real wage bill in the time series, having registered 172.7 billion reais in the fourth quarter of 2024. Compared with the fourth quarter of 2023, the Central-West Region remained stable and the other regions grew.

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 on 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 on Sidra. The next release of the Quarterly PNAD, relative to the first quarter of 2025, will be on May 16.