The unemployment rate in the country in Q1 2025 reached 7.0%. Against Q4 2024, this rate increased in 12 of the 27 Federation Units and remained stable in the remaining 15. Pernambuco (11.6%), Bahia (10.9%) and Piauí (10.2%) had the highest rates, while the lowest were found in Santa Catarina (3.0%), Rondônia (3.1%) and Mato Grosso (3.5%). This data is presented by the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (PNAD) released today by the IBGE. 

For William Kratochwill, analyst of the survey, “the Brazilian labor market, despite this increase, has shown its resilience. This increase in the first quarter is seasonal, due to the end of temporary contracts at the end of the year. The increase of 0.8 percentage points was lower than the average (1.1 p.p.) for this quarter, so that this unemployment rate was the lowest for a first quarter in the time series”.

All time-search time ranges recorded drops in the number of unemployed persons

In Q1 2025, the number of unemployed persons in the four time-search time ranges analyzed by the Continuous PNAD dropped from the same quarter in 2024. In addition, the number of persons who had been searching for work for two years or more fell to 1.4 million, the lowest number of unemployed persons in this range for a first quarter since 2015. Despite the drop of 25.6% against Q1 2024, this figure is still 8.1% above the lowest rate in the series (1.3 million), reached in 2014.

According to William, “the number of persons who had been searching for a job for more than a year reached its lowest level for a first quarter. With this increase, 21.5% of the unemployed had been in this situation for less than a month. Thus, for the first time, for Q1, there are more persons unemployed for less than a month than for more than 2 years, reinforcing the hypothesis of labor market recovery.”

Unemployment rate among women is 8.7% and among men, 5.7%

In Q1 2025, while the unemployment rate for the working-age population reached 7.0%, this indicator was 5.7% for men and 8.7% for women. By color or race, the rate was below the national average for white persons (5.6%) and above for black (8.4%) and brown ones (8.0%).

The unemployment rate for persons with incomplete high school education (11.4%) exceeded that of the other levels of schooling analyzed. For persons with incomplete higher education, the rate was 7.9%, more than twice as that for those with a higher education degree (3.9%).

Maranhão (58.4%) has the highest informality rate and Santa Catarina (25.3%) has the lowest

The informality rate for Brazil was 38.0% of the employed population. The highest rates were in Maranhão (58.4%), Pará (57.5%) and Piauí (54.6%) and the lowest ones in Santa Catarina (25.3%), Federal District (28.2%) and São Paulo (29.3%).

According to the survey analyst, “the informality rate reflects the level of economic maturity of each state, as the most industrialized and complex ones gegerate more formal job posts.”

To calculate the informality rate proxy of the employed population, workers in the private sector without a formal employment contract, domestic workers without a formal employment contract, workers without a CNPJ registry, self-employed workers without a CNPJ registry and auxiliary family workers are considered.

Maranhão has the lowest percentage of workers with a formal employment contract (51.8%) and Santa Catarina, the highest (87.8%)

In Q1 2025, among workers in the private sector in the country, 74.6% had a formal employment contract. The Federation Units with the highest percentages of workers with a formal employment contract were Santa Catarina (87.8%), São Paulo (83.4%) and Rio Grande do Sul (81.5%), and the lowest were Maranhão (51.8%), Piauí (52.0%), and Pará (55.1%).

The percentage of the self-employed population in the country was 25.3%. The highest percentages were found in Rondônia (35.6%), Maranhão (32.7%) and Amazonas (31.2%), and the lowest ones were in the Federal District (19.0%), Tocantins (20.6%) and Mato Grosso do Sul (21.2%).

Earnings increased in the South and in the Northeast

The average usual real earnings from all jobs was estimated at R$3,410. There was an increase in both comparisons: against the immediately previous quarter (R$3,371) and against the same quarter in 2024 (R$3,279).

In the quarterly and annual comparisons, the Northeast (R$2,383) and the South (R$3,840) had a statistically significant increase in earnings in Q1 2025, while there was stability in the other Major Regions.

The Southeast region had the highest real wage bill (R$ 174.9 billion) in Q1 2025. In comparison with Q4 2024, only the South had a statistically significant increase in wage bill, with stability in the remaining Major Regions.

However, real usual earnings (R$ 345.0 billion) remained stable in the quarter and grew 6.6% (R$ 21.2 billion more) in the year. The Southeast region had the highest real wage bill (R$ 174.9 billion) and the North, the lowest (R$ 21.1 billion).

More about the survey

Continuous PNAD is the main instrument to monitor workforce in Brazil. Every quarter, nearly two thousand interviewers integrated to the data collection network of more than 500 IBGE branches cover about 3,500 municipalities located in the 27 Federation Units of the country, corresponding to 211 thousand households surveyed in Brazil.

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 identity of the interviewers can be confirmed at the Answering the IBGE website or through the Call Center (0800 7218181), and their ID numbers can be requested by the informants.

See PNAD data on Sidra. The next release of the Monthly Continuous PNAD, related to Q2 2025, will be on August 15.