MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Temer appoints new Labor minister; officials resign to run in 2018 elections

The Labor Ministry's press office said Nogueira resigned so he can become a candidate to serve in Congress' lower house in next October's election

Brazilian President Michel Temer will appoint Congressman Pedro Fernandes as the new labor minister, the leader of the Brazilian Labour Party, Jovair Arantes, said on Wednesday. Brazilian Labor Minister Ronaldo Nogueira has resigned because he plans to seek a seat in Chamber of Deputies in next year's election.

 The press office of Brazil's presidency says he tendered his resignation Wednesday afternoon.

The Labor Ministry's press office said Nogueira resigned so he can become a candidate to serve in Congress' lower house. Nogueira belongs to the right-of-center Brazilian Labor Party.

Temer is expected to change most ministers by next April, when politicians need to leave their government posts to run for congressional elections scheduled for October.

In related news it was reported that the Brazilian economy lost 12,292 jobs in November as 1,111,798 people were hired and 1,124,090 were dismissed during the last month, according to government data.

From January to November, however, there was a 299,635 net gain in jobs.

According to the data, only the retail sector had a positive result in November, creating 68,602 jobs, whereas manufacturing had the worst performance, shutting down 29,006 job positions, followed by construction (-22,826).