• Highlights

• Number of formal organizations grew again in the country, reaching 5.2 million in 2019. It was an increase of 6.1% compared to 2018, and the number of enterprises with at least one person employed increased by 3.4%.
• Salaried employed persons increased by 1.7%.
• Methodology that defines active CEMPRE organizations underwent change with the incorporation of data from eSocial.
• Total amount paid in salaries and other compensation fell by 0.7%.
• Average monthly salary had a 3.5% drop.
• About 0.4% of active organizations carried out exports in 2019 and 0.7%, imports.
• Exporting organizations employ 10.8% of all employees, despite being only 0.4% of all active organizations.
• Most of the exporting organizations were from Industry (62.5%) and Trade (30.1%).
• About 15.3% of enterprises with 250 employees or more export; for those with 1 to 9, only 0.3%.

After having registered three consecutive years of declines, the number of formal organizations grew again in the country, reaching 5.2 million in 2019 (up 6.1%). From 2018 to 2019, the number of enterprises and other active organizations with at least one person employed increased by 3.4% and that of salaried workers, by 1.7%, but the total amount paid in salaries and other compensation decreased by 0.7%, in real terms.

The information is part of the Statistics of the Central Register of Enterprises (CEMPRE) 2019, which, for the first time, included foreign trade. This edition, released today (June 24) by the IBGE, also underwent  a change in the methodology that defines active organizations, due to the new registration system adopted by the government.

“The federal government instituted a new system of administrative records for registering tax, social security and labor obligations, called eSocial, which is gradually replacing RAIS and CAGED. In 2019, some of the information comprised in RAIS could not be found in eSocial and, as a result, the IBGE needed to adjust the selection criteria for active organizations of CEMPRE Statistics, which demands greater caution when analyzing the numbers", explains survey manager Thiego Ferreira.

Among the questions that were no longer included in the questionnaire is the one that identifies whether the establishment declared to have carried out its activities in that year or not. Thus, it might be the case that some enterprises classified as formally active are ono longer operating.

“This may be related to the unusual increase in the number of active organizations, mainly in enterprises with no employees: 35.8%. Among enterprises with at least one person employed and where, in practice, the vast majority of entities and the entire workforce are located, the increase was 3.4%”, emphasizes Mr. Ferreira.

The study shows that there was an increase in the number of active enterprises in 2019, as well as in salaried employed persons, whose positive balance was 758.6 thousand persons (1.7%). The South and Central-West regions presented, compared to 2018, the greatest relative gains in salaried employed persons. The highlights were Santa Catarina, which grew 3.9% in this regard, and Mato Grosso, which grew 3.4%. Next come the Federal District and Mato Grosso do Sul, which grew 2.8 and 2.7%. On the other hand, the biggest falls were observed in the North, with reductions of 4.4% of salaried workers in Amapá and 3.0% in Tocantins.

Of the positive balance of salaried employed persons, Administrative activities and complementary services accounted for 187.9 thousand of these new job positions, equivalent to 24.8%. This sector is closely related to the outsourcing of labor and encompasses activities such as combined office services and administrative support, with an increase of 69.1 thousand employees and Temporary labor leasing, of 37.4 thousand.

On the other hand, the sector of Manufacturing industries registered a decrease of 17.6 thousand salaried employed persons (-2.3% of the balance) and Education, a reduction of 39.7 thousand persons (-5.2%), to a large extent, a reflection of the loss of salaried employees in the activity of Secondary Education (35.8 thousand).

Average monthly salary decreased by 3.5%

However, not only did the total of salaries and other compensation drop (-0.7%), but also the average salary had a 3.5% decrease after being corrected for inflation, from R$ 3,085.21 in 2018 to R$ 2,975.74 in 2019.

“This behavior of real wage declines in the pre-pandemic year can be explained by a combination of factors. Among them, the change in the composition of the stock of salaried personnel, with replacement by cheaper labor force and creation of positions with lower compensation; an acceleration of inflation in 2019; and a still high unemployment rate, which can limit wage increase”, comments Thiego Ferreira.

In the Federation Units, the Federal District and Amapá stood out with the highest salaries: the FD with an average monthly salary of R$ 5,241.72 and Amapá of 3,650.25. Then, Rio de Janeiro (R$3,486.69) and São Paulo (R$3,345.07), which account for more than a third of all salaried personnel in the country. The lowest salaries were observed in Paraíba (R$ 2,185.88), Ceará (R$ 2,275.63) and Alagoas (R$ 2,262.62).

The highest average monthly salaries in 2019 were in the segments of Electricity and gas (BRL 7,185.14), Financial activities, insurance and related services (BRL 5,941.42) and International organizations and other extraterritorial institutions (BRL 5,857.13). These three activities, however, employ a very small portion of the population (2.7% of salaried persons in the country).

The lowest average salaries are in activities that employ around 33.2% of salaried workers in Brazil. They are: Lodging and food (R$ 1,534.67), Administrative activities and complementary services (R$ 1,813.77) and Trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (R$1,942.80).

Enterprises that export and import are few, but employ many

The survey also brought, for the first time in the IBGE, information on characteristics of exporting and importing enterprises and other organizations, such as size, economic activity and how much they participate in the number of enterprises and salaried personnel in the total formal economy. The identification in CEMPRE of these exporting and importing entities was possible from the list with registration data published by the Foreign Trade Secretariat (Secex) and which carry out foreign trade operations.

According to the data, exports were carried out in 2019 by 22,849 organizations, which represented only 0.4% of the total number of entities, but employed 10.8% of the total number of employees (5.0 million persons). In addition, the average monthly salary in these enterprises was R$ 4,188.98, 40.8% above the average for active CEMPRE entities.

Imports, in turn, were carried out by a greater number of enterprises (38,672), which participated with 0.7% of the total of organizations and employed 17.8% of salaried workers (8.3 million persons) with an average compensation of R$ 4,390.19 (47.5% above the average).

The study also presents a time series with information since 2007, showing that there was no significant change in the number of enterprises that import or export.

“In just over a decade, the participation in the economy of the number of exporting and importing enterprises has remained at approximately the same level of, respectively, 0.4% and 0.7%. However, in the same period, the participation in the formal labor market of salaried persons of these enterprises shrank: in exporters, it fell from 13.1% in 2007 to 10.8% in 2019, and in importers, from 18.9% to 17 .8%”, comments the survey manager.

In 2019, most exporting organizations were from Industry (62.5%), followed by Trade (30.1%) and Services (4.8%). In terms of labor, 77.9% of the salaried employed persons of Brazilian exporting enterprises were mostly in Industry, with this same contingent representing almost half (48.9%) of all salaried persons in this sector. Agriculture and livestock, in turn, despite accounting for only 1.6% of all exporting enterprises, had the second largest participation in personnel (23.0%) in the total workforce in this sector.

Among the entities importing goods, 48.3% of them are in Trade and 40.0% in Industry. On the other hand, industry employs a lot more persons: 48.3% of wage earners, against 15.5% in Trade.

CEMPRE data also suggest that the larger the enterprise, the greater its propensity to export. While only 0.3% of the total enterprises with 1 to 9 salaried employed persons are exporters, in those with 250 or more the percentage is 15.3%. A similar trend occurs for importers.