The unemployment rate was estimated at 5.7%, the lowest rate for March since the beginning of the series (March 2002), and it did not change in relation to the results of February (5.6%). In comparison to March 2012 (6.2%), the rate contracted 0.5 percentage points. The unemployed population (1.4 million people) was stable in relation to the previous month and decreased 8.5% (127 thousand people) in relation to March last year.  The employed population (23.0 million) remained stable in comparison to February.  Contrasting with February 2012, there was an increase of 1.2%, which meant a rise of 276 thousand employed persons within 12 months. The number of workers with a formal contract in the private sector (11.4 million) did not record change in relation to February. In the annual comparison, there was an increase of 2.8%, accounting for additional 309 thousand jobs with a formal contract in a year. The real average income usually earned by the employed (R$ 1,855.40) held steady in relation to February. Against March last year, the employed persons’ purchasing power grew 0.6%.  The volume of real income usually earned of the employed (R$ 42.8 billion) decreased by 0.6% in relation to February. Compared with March 2012, the volume grew 1.6%. The volume of real actual income of the employed (R$ 42.6 billion), estimated in February 2013, changed -0.5% in the month and 2.7 % in the period of a year.

The Monthly Employment Survey is conducted in the metropolitan areas of Recife, Salvador, Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Porto Alegre.  The complete publication can be accessed at www.ibge.gov.br/english/estatistica/indicadores/trabalhoerendimento/pme_nova/.

Conversely, in the classification by position at work, there was a rise in the average real income usually earned compared with February for workers without a formal contract in the private sector (6.4%):

Unemployment rate unchanged in all regions in relation to February

Among the regions, the unemployment rate, in the monthly analysis, did not post any change in any of the metropolitan areas surveyed. Against March 2012, the rate fell in Rio de Janeiro (from 5.9% to 4.7%) and in Porto Alegre (from 5.2% to 4.0%) and remained unchanged in the other regions.

The contingent of unemployed people (jobless people trying to get in the market) in March 2013 was estimated at 1.4 million in the set of the six regions surveyed, recording stability in relation to February. Over March last year, this population decreased 8.5% (a reduction of almost 127 thousand people). 

The regional analysis recorded stable rates in the volume of unemployed people against last February in all regions surveyed. In relation to March 2012, there was a reduction of this number in the metropolitan areas of Porto Alegre and do Rio de Janeiro (23.4% and 19.4%, respectively) and stability in the other regions.

Level of Employment stays at 53.8%

The level of employment (proportion of employed people in relation to the working age population) was estimated in March 2013 at 53.8% in all the six regions surveyed, remaining unchanged relation to last February.  In comparison to March last year, this indicator did not post any significant change. Among the regions, in the monthly comparison, there was a rise in Recife (1.5 percentage points) and a drop in São Paulo (0.7 percentage points) and the other regions held steady. In the comparison with March 2012, the Metropolitan Area of Belo Horizonte presented a contraction of 1.8 percentage points, moving from 57.7% to 55.9% and the other regions remained unchanged.

In the annual comparison, average income increases in five out of the six regions

The workers’ average real income usually earned, in the regional analysis and against February 2013, rose in the Metropolitan Areas of São Paulo (0.9%) and Recife (0.6%).    There was decrease in Belo Horizonte (1.8%), Salvador (1.5%), Porto Alegre (1.5%) and in Rio de Janeiro (0.8%). In comparison to March 2012, there was increase in Recife (6.8%), Porto Alegre (3.5%), São Paulo (1.5%) and Belo Horizonte (0.8%). In Salvador, there was a decrease (10.7%) and in Rio de Janeiro it remained stable.

In relation to the sets of activities, in comparison to February 2013, there were positive changes in the groups of  Services rendered to enterprises, renting, real estate activities and financial intermediation (2.2%), Domestic services (0.4%) and Other services (lodging, transportation, urban sanitation and personal services) (0.7%). In the annual comparison, Education, health, social services, public administration, defense and social security (-4.1%) and Other services (lodging, transportation, urban sanitation and personal services) (-1.9%) had negative changes.