Brazil has 16.4 million unemployed or underemployed people

The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) reported today (Oct. 13) that there are 11.6 million people unemployed in the country in the second quarter of 2016, compared with the 11.1 million reported in the first quarter. This rate accounts for people who are looking for a job, but remain unemployed.

Adding the unemployment rate to the underemployment, it arrives at 16.4 million people who are unemployed or are not working the number of hours they would like. In the first quarter, the total was 15.3 million.

The underemployment and unemployment rate compared to the total number of people who are in the labor market increased from 15% in the first quarter to 16% in the second quarter.

According to the institute, the Brazilian working-age population, ie people over 14 years old, is divided between people in the workforce and people outside the workforce. People within the workforce may be working (employed people) or unemployed (ie, people looking for a job, but that remain unemployed).

Underemployment

The IBGE reported that underemployment is one of the new labor market indicators which are then analyzed by the Continuous National Household Sampling Survey (Continuous PNAD). Among the employed people, there are those who are underemployed with insufficient working hours, that is, those who work fewer than 40 hours per week and would like to have more working hours. There are 4.8 million people underemployed in the second quarter of 2016. In the first quarter of the year, this number was 4.2 million.

Self-employed people

Continuous PNAD has also used another new indicator: self-employment. According to the IBGE, in the second quarter of this year, among the 22.9 million of self-employed people, only 4.4 million (or 19.3% of the total) were formally registered in the National Registry of Legal Entities (CNPJ). In the first quarter, the total of people registered were 4.6 million of the 23.2 million (20%).

Translated by Amarílis Anchieta