According to the latest data from the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (PNAD Contínua), the unemployment rate in Brazil for the period from March to May 2023 declined by 0.3 percentage points to 8.3%, compared to the previous quarter ending in February 2023 (8.6%). It also decreased by 1.5 percentage points compared to the same period last year (9.8%).
The underutilization rate, which includes unemployed individuals and those working fewer hours than desired, stood at 18.2% during the same quarter. This figure dropped by 0.6 percentage points from the December 2022 to February 2023 period (18.8%) and decreased by 3.7 percentage points compared to the quarter ending in May 2022 (21.8%).
The population of unemployed individuals decreased by 3.0% (279,000 fewer people) compared to the previous quarter and by 15.9% (1.7 million fewer people) compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, the number of employed individuals remained stable at 98.4 million compared to the previous quarter and increased by 0.9% (884,000 more people) compared to the same period last year.
The employment-to-population ratio, which represents the percentage of employed individuals among the working-age population, remained steady at 56.4% in both quarterly comparisons.
The data also showed that the population classified as underutilized decreased by 4.2% (20.7 million people) compared to the previous quarter and declined by 18.5% compared to the same period last year.
Furthermore, the number of discouraged workers (those who have given up searching for employment) decreased by 6.2% (244,000 fewer people) compared to the previous quarter and declined by 14.3% (621,000 fewer people) compared to the same period last year.
The informal employment rate, representing the percentage of informal workers among the employed population, remained unchanged at 38.9% during the quarter. This figure was the same as the previous quarter but slightly lower than the same period last year (40.1%).
Overall, while the unemployment rate and underutilization rate in Brazil have shown improvement, there is still work to be done to further strengthen the labor market and create more opportunities for job seekers.