In the same period, the monthly average employed population increased by 16.1% and the total number of women working increased by 20.6%.  On the average, black and brown workers earned approximately half of the income of whites.  The proportion of workers with a formal contract increased from 49%, in 2003, to 53.4%, in 2008.   Since 2003, the annual average income of workers increased by 11.3%.

The transformations which have been occurring in the labor market in the last years continued in 2008.  The monthly average (from January to December) employed persons in the six Metropolitan Areas surveyed increased by 3.8% compared to 2007 and 16.1% in relation to 2003.  The highest increase was recorded in the Metropolitan Area of Belo Horizonte (24.8%) and the lowest increase in Recife (7.5%). 

Table 11a: Variation of employed population, according to metropolitan areas (in %)

From 2003 to 2008, the percentage of persons employed with 11 years or more of study increased by 9.0 percentage points (changed from 46.7% to 55.7%), while in the population with 10 years or more, for the same period, an increase of 7.1 percentage points (changed from 34.4% to 41.5%) was recorded.

The proportion of persons with higher education in the population employed reached 16.3% in 2008, compared to 13.8% in 2003.  In the metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro, this participation had a growth of 3.7 percentage points.  Salvador had the lowest participation of population employed with higher education (12.2%).  

Table 23: Distribution of population employed with higher education, by Metropolitan Area (%)  

Female employed population increased by 20.6%, since 2003

A major number of women entered the labor market: their participation changed from 44.4% in 2007 to 44.7% in 2008.  It is worth mentioning that in 2003 their participation did not reach 43.0%.  The data showed that the expansion was more pronounced among the women in both periods and in all the Metropolitan Areas.  Even that men were the majority among the employed persons, it is worth mentioning that in the comparison of 2008 with 2003, the variation of population employed was 12.7% for men and 20.6% for women.

Table 14: Distribution of population employed, by metropolitan area, according to sex (%) 

Since 2004, metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro records the major number of working hours per week (41.3 hours)

In 2008, the persons employed had on the average 40.7 weekly hours of work, compared to 41.3 in 2003.  The major result was recorded in the metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro, 41.3 hours.

Table 27: Average weekly number of hours worked in all the works, by metropolitan area (%) *

The estimates for the population employed that contributed for social security showed that, in the last year as in the comparison with 2003, there was an expansion higher than the one of the population employed.  It is worth mentioning that, between 2003 and 2008, the number of persons employed increased by 16.1%, and, as shows the following table, among those which contributed for social security the change was 24.8%.

In 2003, 61.1% of the employed persons in any work contributed for social security and in 2008 this proportion reached 65.8%.  In 2008, the metropolitan area that recorded the highest participation of contributors employed was Porto Alegre (70.0%) and the lowest was Recife (57.4%).  Between 2007 and 2008, all the areas recorded growth of the percentage of contributors, mainly Belo Horizonte, São Paulo and Porto Alegre, with changes of 2.5, 2.1, and 1.6 percentage points, respectively. 

Formal contracts increased from 49% in 2003 to 53.4% in 2008

The percentage of workers with a formal contract in the private sector reached 44.1%, a record in the time series of the survey. Consequently, the number of workers who contributed for Social Security also increased.  In 2003, 61.1% of the persons employed contributed for Social Security, in 2008 this proportion increased to 64.1%.

For this study, the population was disaggregated in eight categories:  employees with a formal contract in the private sector; employees without a formal contract in the private sector; own-account workers; employers; household workers; military or public statutory servants; employees with a formal contract in the public sector; and, employees without a formal contract in the public sector.  The results show the gradual and continuous increase, since 2003, of the participation of employees with a formal contract in the private sector which reached 44.1% of the persons employed.

In 2008, the metropolitan area of São Paulo continued with the major proportion of employees with a formal contract (47.7%) while the lowest was recorded in Recife (38.1%).  The employees with a formal contract in the private sector, the military or statutory public servants, and the employees with a formal contract in the public service totaled 53.4% of the employed persons in 2008, compared to 49% in 2003 – showing the increase of formal contracts in the labor market.

Table 36: Distribution of employees with a formal contract in the private sector, by metropolitan areas (in %)* 

In 2008, the average monthly estimates for the total employees with a formal contract in the private sector was approximately 9.6 million persons in the total six Metropolitan Areas surveyed.  Between 2007 and 2008, this group of workers increased in all the metropolitan areas.  In the total six metropolitan areas the increase was 7.8% compared to a change of 3.8% in the population employed.  From 2003 to 2008 this class of worker also had a significant expansion with change of 29.0%, which corresponded to an increase of 2,147 thousand persons, while the population employed, in the same period, increased by 16.1%.  Belo Horizonte recorded hike of 41.0%; Recife, 32.2%; São Paulo, 32.7%, Salvador, 25.8%; Porto Alegre, 27.6%; and Rio de Janeiro, 17.5%, in the same period of comparison.

The group mining and quarrying, manufacturing and distribution of electricity, gas and water answered for 25.0% of the total six Metropolitan Areas.  In Porto Alegre this participation was 33.1% and in Salvador, 15.1%.

The group trade, repair of automotive vehicles and personal and domestic objects and retail fuel trade continued concentrating 20.1% of the employees with a formal contract in the private sector.  With the exception of São Paulo (18.3%) and Recife (26.5%), the other Metropolitan Areas recorded participation closer to the result of the six areas grouped, as shows the following table.

The Metropolitan Area of Rio de Janeiro, despite recording a high contribution (24.9%) of the group services rendered to companies, rents, real-estate activities and financial mediation among the employees with a formal contract in the private sector, lost the leadership to Salvador (25.4%) which brought an increase of 1.7 percentage points in relation to the previous year.  In Porto Alegre the lowest participation was recorded, 16.1%.

Participation of employees without a formal contract among the employed persons fell from 15.5% to 13.4% in the period

The average participation of employees without a formal contract in the private sector among the total persons employed changed from 15.5% in 2003 to 13.4% in 2008.  This reduction was a consequence of the growth of participation of employees with a formal contract (39.7% to 44.3%).  In 2008, the number of employees without a formal contract was the same as in 2007 and between 2003 and 2008 this number increased by 0.2%.

Table 42: Distribution of employees without a formal contract in the private sector, by metropolitan areas (in %)*

In 2008, men answered for 58.5% of the employees without a formal contract, and women for 41.5%.  Rio de Janeiro (17.5%) had the highest percentage of persons with 50 years old or more employed without a formal contract in the private sector and Salvador (9.2%) the lowest. 

Considering the employees without a formal contract in the private sector, disaggregated by groups of activity, there was from 2003 to 2008 an increase in the participation of this class of worker in the groups of services rendered to companies, rents, real estate activities and financial mediation (from 14.1% in 2003 to 15.5% in 2008) and in other services (from 22.7% to 24.6 %).

Participation of own-account workers fell from 20.0% in 2003 to 18.8% in 2008

Own-account workers represented in 2008, 18.8% of the employed persons while in 2003 this proportion was 20.0%.  The region with major participation of this class of workers in the employed population was Recife with 22.8%. São Paulo and Belo Horizonte, recorded, both, the lowest percentage, 16.7%.

Table 50: Distribution of own-account workers, by metropolitan areas (in %)*

Among the own-account workers increased the participation of women, from 36.6% in 2003 to 38.5% in 2008 and of those with 11 years or more of schooling from 32.7% in 2003 to 40.4% in 2008.  It is worth mentioning that besides the growing participation of those with 50 years old or more as own-account workers, this total reached 33.6% in 2008 compared to 27.6% in 2003.  This result was more significant in the Metropolitan Area of Belo Horizonte, where the number of own-account workers with 50 years old or more increased from 25.4% in 2003 to 33.0% in 2008. 

From 2003 to 2008, the unemployed population decreased by 29.4 %

The search for work fell significantly. The average number of persons searching work in the 12 months of 2008 was estimated in 1,853 million compared to 2,137 million in 2007, a reduction of 13.3%.  Compared to 2003, when there were 2,624 million persons searching for a job, the reduction was 29.4%. 

Table 73 – Number of unemployed persons, according to metropolitan areas * 

The average annual unemployment rate for 2008 was estimated in 7.9%, the lowest in the time series of the PME.  In 2008, in the six Metropolitan Areas surveyed, there was a monthly average (from January to December) of 1.9 million unemployed persons, the lowest monthly average result for the index from 2003 to 2008.  In the comparison with 2007, the reduction was 13.3%.  In relation to the year 2003 the decrease was 29.4%, corresponding to a reduction of 771 thousand unemployed persons.  In the period analyzed (2003-2008), with the exception of the year 2006, when the monthly average had a slight increase (3.9%), the result of unemployed persons followed a trend of decrease.  In all the months of 2008 reductions of the population unemployed were observed in relation to the same month of 2007, and the most pronounced decreases were recorded in the months of May, June and August of 2008: 20.4% and 17.0% and 19.2%, respectively. 

Between 2007 and 2008, the reduction of the monthly average number of unemployed persons occurred in the male population: from 43.4% to 41.9%.  Among women, the trend was of growth, from 56.7% to 58.1% and Porto Alegre brought the highest growth of female unemployment, 2.4 percentage points.

In relation to 2003, the percentage of women among the total unemployed persons increased in all the areas surveyed.  It is important to observe that the number of unemployed women decreased by 25% (from 1,434.5 million to 1,076.5 million, between 2003 and 2008).  The reduction of unemployed men was 34.7% in the same period (from 1,189.4 thousand to 776.5 thousand), which means, 9.7 percentage points more of decrease than women – showing that the intensity of reduction among men was more significant.

Average income increased by 11.3% since 2003

The annual average of the average monthly income in effect increased by 3.4% from 2007 to 2008 and 11.3% from 2003 to 2008.  In these 5 years there was a significant gain in the purchasing power of the employed population in the total six areas surveyed (11.3%) in approximately R$ 128,11.  All the metropolitan areas brought changes above 6.0% in the annual average income.

Table 95: - Average real income in effect of the employed population, by metropolitan areas (in Reais)* - at prices of Dec /08 

Despite the visible recovery of the income of the population employed in the last three years, the purchasing power of the population in relation to the year 2002 was not yet restarted* in the metropolitan area surveyed.

Table 96: Variation of the annual average of the real average income in effect of the population employed, by metropolitan area (in %)

Brown and black workers earned half of the income of whites

The difference of earning also was recorded by the PME, which showed a disparity between the income of men and women and, also, between whites, blacks and browns. Women earned approximately 71.0% of the income earned by men, and this scenario along the series of the PME did not change significantly.

The income of black and brown workers, in five years, had an increase of 17.7%, while the income of white workers increased by 12.2%.  The survey also showed that, on the average, black and brown workers earned slightly more than half (50.8%) of the income earned by white workers.  It is worth mentioning that in 2003 this value was 48.5%. 

Table 113: Average real income in effect in the main work, according to color or race, by metropolitan areas (in Reais)* - at prices of Dec/08

The income of black or brown workers (R$ 812,45) continued lower than the one of white workers (R$ 1.598,02).  In 2008, comparing the annual average of income of white workers with black and brown workers, it could be observed that, on the average,  black and brown workers gained more than half (50.8%) of the income earned by white workers.

Income increased in all classes of workers

From 2007 to 2008 income increased in all classes of workers: workers with a formal contract in the private sector (2.0%); own-account workers (4.2%); workers not registered (employees without a formal contract in the private sector) (1.3%); employers (4.1%); and the category of military and statutory public servants (3.5%).

The same occurred in all the groups of activity which recorded gain in the purchasing power.  From 2003 to 2008, the household income per capita increased by 19.6%.  Similarly, the volume of real monthly income in effect (annual average) was estimated for 2008 in 27.6 billion, which resulted in an increase of 28.7% in five years (from 2003 to 2008).
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* The time series of the PME, initiated in March 2002, does not provide an annual comparison, and as a consequence the comparison was calculated between the second semesters and the months from March to December.