Continuous PNAD
Inland areas of Brazil have lower unemployment, but experience more underemployment
March 07, 2019 03h30 PM | Last Updated: March 08, 2019 01h17 PM
Unemployment was smaller in the inland areas of states, according to data relative to Q3 2018 from the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (Continuous PNAD). The unemployment rate in inland areas was below that in the metropolitan areas of 21 states, except Acre, Roraima, Mato Grosso do Sul and Goiás, which recorded the highest unemployment figures and Bahia, where the rate remained unchanged.
Data evidence that when the unemployment rate is lower inland, the metropolitan area and the capital account for most of the unemployment in the state. The biggest difference took place in Amazonas, where the rate ranged between 9.1% inland and 14.4% in the state. The second biggest difference was registered in Espírito Santo, where unemployment was 8.2% inland versus 10.2% in the state, followed by Rondônia, from 7.2% to 9% and São Paulo, from 10.8% to 12.4%.
Although the unemployment rate is smaller in inland areas, the survey shows that part of the persons said to be employed are, in fact, time-related underemployed, that is, they work up to 40 hours per week, but would like to work more. In 19 Federations Units, the underemployment rate in inland areas was higher than in the state. In Sergipe, for example, the unemployment rate is 13.7% inland, but underemployment reaches 23.7%. In Ceará, unemployment is 9.2%, whereas underemployment hits 16.9%, and, in Piauí, it changed from 11.7% to 25.9%.
Based on that, the IBGE’s coordinator of Labor and Income, Cimar Azeredo, highlights the importance of underutilization and underemployment of labor force, proposed by the International Labor Organization (ILO), in 2013, and used in the Continuous PNAD since 2016. According to Cimar, an evaluation of the labor market in terms of the unemployment rate, only, can lead to distortions.
“If we did not have today the complete measures of labor force underutilization proposed by ILO, and used the unemployment rate, only, inland areas would seem to be in more favorable conditions that the metropolitan areas and capitals”.
Cimar explains that the analysis of labor Market in inland areas is relevant because the population aged over 14 is bigger in inland areas of 22 states, surpassing 70% in nine Federation Units. For example, the number of persons in this group that lives out of the metropolitan areas hit 85% in Santa Catarina, 81.5% in Tocantins and 77.9% in Maranhão.
The condition of inequality between inland Brazil and the metropolitan areas demands the creation of different, specific public policies that can improve the quality of labor market and of income in inland areas.
“Underemployment in inland areas is smaller, but, on the other hand, there is where one can find more underemployed persons, more persons in the potential labor force, and that characterizes a specific process. For that reason, public policies have to be formulated in a different way so that they can change underemployment, potential work and discouragement. We have to look into the inland, there is no way out” Cimar says.
