Unemployment saw average rate of 13.5% in 2020

Brazil’s average unemployment rate reached 13.5 percent in 2020, compared to 11.9 percent in 2019. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the labor market led to a record high in joblessness in 20 of the 27 states in the country. Out of the list are the states of Pará, Amapá, Tocantins, Piauí, Pernambuco, Espírito Santo, and Santa Catarina.

The highest unemployment levels in the country were observed in the Northeast, and the lowest in the South. Bahia, with 19.8 percent, had the highest joblessness rate in 2020, followed by Alagoas (18.6%), Sergipe (18.4%), and Rio de Janeiro (17.4%). Santa Catarina (6.1%), Rio Grande do Sul (9.1%), and Paraná (9.4%) reported the lowest values.

The data come from the Continuous PNAD (National Household Sample Survey), published today (Mar. 10) by the government’s statistics institute IBGE, which points out that 2020’s percentage is the highest in the current time series, initiated in 2012.

Employment

In a year’s time, the country’s employed population had 7.3 million fewer people, which resulted in the lowest amount in the time series for yearly averages—86.1 million, as per official figures. For the first time, in 2020, less than half the population of working age was employed in Brazil (49.4%).

The level of employment was below 50 percent last year across 15 states, all of which in the Northeast. In Alagoas, a mere 35.9 percent of the people of working age had a job. As for the Southeast, in Rio de Janeiro, only 45.4 percent was employed. The state with the highest employment rate last year was Mato Grosso, with 58.7 percent.

The study also showed that the decline in employment was spread among all groups of workers.

Informal work

The average informality rate was also impacted by the pandemic and sank from 41.1 percent in 2019 to 38.7 percent in 2020, reaching 39.9 million workers.

Research analyst Adriana Beringuy noted that informal workers were the first to be hit by the effects of the pandemic. The reduction in informality is not linked to an expansion in formal employment in the labor market, she argued. “Rather, it’s linked to the fact that informal workers have lost their job over the course of the year. With fewer informal workers making up the employed group, the informality rate declines,” she explained.