Lack of Jobs for 13.6% of Working Age Brazilians

10/14/2016 - 12h58

Recently disclosed statistics on the Brazilian labor market show that an increasing number of workers in the country is occupying positions below their needs or have withdrawn from the market due to the lack of opportunities amid the ongoing economic recession.

On Thursday (13), the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) disclosed a study that shows that, in addition to the 11.6 million unemployed Brazilians looking for a job in the country, in the second quarter of 2106, the country also had 4.8 million sub employed workers and 6.2 million people at working age that withdrew from the market during the crisis.

The three groups represent 13.6% of the 166.3 million working age people in the country - men and women over the age of 14. "These are people who could be working, but are not," says Cimar Azeredo, of the IBGE's Labor and Income coordination department.

The institute considers sub employed those workers who put in fewer than 40 hours a week, or eight hours a day, considering the five weekdays.
These people, at the moment they answered the IBGE survey questions, said they are interested in supplementing their incomes during their free time because the position they currently occupy does not guarantee an income they consider sufficient.

From the first to the second quarter of 2016, 700.000 people entered the latter group. Technically, they are in the sub employed group because they do not work enough hours.

The data were surveyed by the Continuous National Household Sample Survey of Brazil (Pnad), the country's official employment survey, and indicate that the labor market continues to deteriorate as a result of the crisis, which tends to affect the economy's capacity to recover vigorously.

The 6.2 million Brazilians who are not in the market are classified by the IBGE as "potential labor," working age Brazilians who left the market due to various circumstances, giving up the search for a job after several failed attempts, the so-called discouragement, or who did not manage to find a job they found rewarding.

The figures increased sharply in comparison with those of the beginning of the crisis. In two years, the total grew by some two million people, a hike that corresponds to 51%.

	Rivaldo Gomes/Folhapress
	The labor market continues to deteriorate as a result of the crisis, which tends to affect the economy's capacity to recover vigorously

Translated by THOMAS MUELLO

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