MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Unemployment remains unchanged in Brazil: 9,6%

Unemployment in Brazil remained unchanged in October at 9,6% compared to the previous month according to an official release.

Analysts had forecasted unemployment to range between 9,3% and 9,6%. October 2004 unemployment was 10,5%.

Normally in Brazil towards the end of the year employment increases as companies and businesses prepare for the Christmas season additional demand.

The Brazilian statistics office works with numbers from urban employment in the country's six largest cities, Sao Paulo, Rio do Janeiro, Salvador, Belo Horizonte, Recife and Porto Alegre.

However it does include those partially employed or working in the informal sector which in Brazilian cities is considerable. Besides, workers who did not seek for employment the month before the poll are not included as unemployed.

More specifically in metropolitan Sao Paulo, Brazil's major manufacturing hub, unemployment remained steady at 16,9% in October, according to a poll from the private organizations Seade Foundation and the Statistics and Socio-Economic Studies Inter labour unions Department.

Given the region's labour force this means that 1,7 million Brazilians were unemployed during last October.

Furthermore the average take home September salary, paid in early October, in metropolitan Sao Paulo was 1.017 Reales equivalent to approximately, 465 US dollars, which is 1% below the previous month breaking a steady surge that had began last February.