PNAD Contínua
Unemployment stays at 11.6% and underutilization drops in quarter ending in October
November 29, 2019 09h00 AM | Last Updated: November 29, 2019 11h11 AM
According to the Continuous National Household Sample Survey - Continuous PNAD, released today by the IBGE, the unemployment rate stayed at 11.6% between August and October this year, hitting 12.4 million persons. The IBGE considered it stable, despite the reduction of 0.2 percentage points (p.p.) in relation to the quarter between May and July, when it registered 11.8%.
Having changed from 24.6% to 23.8%, the underutilization rate of the workforce was 0.8 p.p. lower than that in the previous moving quarter, which represented nearly one million persons less. Even so, they are 27.1 million persons in this condition.
The survey also unveiled that the number of employed persons without a formal contract in the private sector reached 11.9 million persons, a new record in the time series, which represents a stability in relation to the previous quarter and a rise of 2.4% against the same period of 2018. Another record was the amount of self-employed workers, who reached 24.4 million persons, representing a stability over the previous quarter and a rise of 3.9% in relation to the same quarter last year.
According to Adriana Beringuy, an analyst of the survey, "the stability of the unemployment rate is related to a smaller growth of the employed population in the moving quarter ended in October".
After growing 1.3% between May and July, an increase of 1.2 million employed persons, the rise registered in the quarter between August and October was of 0.5%, about 470 thousand persons more. As a result, the contingent of employed persons changed from 93.6 million between May and July to 94.1 million between August and October.
According to Beringuy, the reduction in the underutilization rate of the workforce is related "to a higher number of persons working more hours, which reduces the contingent of time-related underemployed workers", i.e., those who work less than 40 hours per week, but would like to and are available to work more.
The contingent of underemployed decreased 4.5% over the previous quarter, a reduction of 332 thousand persons. The number of discouraged persons also dropped 4.5% in relation to the previous quarter, representing less 217 thousand persons.
Earnings remain stable, though real wage bill grows 1.8%
The average usual real earnings from all jobs of the employed persons were of R$2,317.00 in the quarter from August to October 2019, remaining stable against the quarter from May to July 2019, as well as in relation to the same quarter a year ago.
The usual real wage bill earned from all jobs by employed persons was estimated at R$212.8 billion. It rose 1.8% when compared with the moving quarter between May and July 2019, i.e., more R$3.7 billion. This was the first statistically significant increase since the quarter from August to October 2017.
The analyst of the survey explains that factors like the increase of the employed population and the decrease in the number of time-related underemployed persons can contribute to raise the real wage bill.
