MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Jobs market remains strong in Brazil; unemployment down to 5.3% in August
Strong retail sales helped the economy avoid a sharp downturn Brazil's jobless rate fell unexpectedly and salaries jumped in August from the previous month, government data showed this week. It was the second consecutive month-to-month drop in Brazil's jobless rate, which remains close to record lows.
With Brazilians holding down their jobs, strong retail sales helped the economy avoid a sharp downturn in July, according to central bank data earlier this month.
Brazil's jobless rate fell to 5.3% in August from 5.6% in July, stats agency IBGE, Brazilian geography and Statistics Institute, reported.
Brazil's economic growth accelerated in the first half of this year following a slew of interest rate cuts, tax breaks and other incentive measures by President Dilma Rousseff's government.
However, part of that stimulus has been reversed as inflation climbed, leading economists to slash their 2013 and 2014 growth forecasts to little more than 2%. Also pointing to resilient consumption, real wages, or salaries discounted for inflation, rose 1.7% from July to an average of 1,883 Reais (848 dollars) a month - an increase of 1.3% from a year earlier.
The IBGE report also showed the number of Brazilians with jobs in the six major metropolitan areas surveyed stood at 23.2 million, unchanged from July and 1.2% higher than in August last year. The tally of people who unsuccessfully looked for work dropped 6% from July to 1.3 million.
The unemployment rate, as calculated by the IBGE, tallies jobs in the formal sector, where employees are legally registered, as well as off-the-books jobs in the so-called informal sector. In August last year, Brazil's jobless rate also stood at 5.3%.
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Read all comments“Jobs market remains strong in Brazil; unemployment down to 5.3% in August.”
Sep 28th, 2013 - 07:25 pm 0“In August last year, Brazil's jobless rate also stood at 5.3%.”
So the effect of all the government attempts to “fix” the problems by “fixing” the markets has not achieved a damn thing.
And WHY is that? Only real progress with the economy with thought-out support, etc. has a chance of working.
But that would mean the “government” would have to know what it is doing and it has demonstrated time and time again it is flailing around doing this and that and changing its mind.
So Mr. Market is doing what he knows best: putting everything back to how it really is.
The government in Britain decided it could “fix” the problem with the pound some years ago and dictate to the markets what the value of the pound would be. People like me knew there was going to be a real shake-up and then along came Soros, and the rest as they say, is history.
ALL governments get a power delusion that THEY are what matters. They demonstrate the fact that they know nothing and the country ends up picking up the tab, just like the ordinary people of Britain had to.
As long as you understand Mr. Market you can survive and even MAKE MONEY. But you have to be careful that the stupid government doesn’t try to pull a flanker.
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