Almost 1/3 of The Unemployed Have Been Looking for A Job for at Least 2 Years
The proportion is a record in the IBGE's historical series, with data since 2012
The difficulties intensified by the pandemic have raised the proportion of unemployed Brazilians who have been looking for work for at least two years to a record level. In the fourth quarter of 2021, the most recent period with available data, 30.3% of the total unemployed in the country were looking for vacancies for at least 24 months.
In absolute terms, this means that 3.6 million out of a universe of 12 million unemployed tried to enter the job market, without success, for two years or more. It is the first time that the percentage breaks the 30% barrier in the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (PNAD). The numbers were compiled by the consultancy IDados, at the request of Folha.
PNAD's historical series, carried out by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, began in 2012. In the fourth quarter of that year, the long-term unemployed (1.3 million) represented 18.6% of the total contingent seeking work in Brazil (6.7 million). The pandemic began to impose restrictions on the country at the end of the first quarter of 2020. Thus, it made it difficult for those who were already out of work before the crisis to search for jobs, according to economists.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon