MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Formal employment up in Brazil last month

In the quarter ending in February, the country's employed population was 102.7 million people, the IBGE survey found

The Brazilian Government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva recorded a positive balance of 431,995 formal jobs in February 2025, marking the highest monthly figure in the Labor Ministry's New General Register of Employed and Unemployed (New Caged) series since it began in 2020.

 The achievements reflected in Friday's release resuled from through 2.58 million admissions and 2.15 million dismissals. Year-to-date, the job market saw a net increase of 576,081 positions, and over the past 12 months, there was a total gain of 1.78 million jobs.

Overall, South America's largest country recorded 47,780,769 active jobs in February, a 0.91% increase from the previous month.

Labor Minister Luiz Marinho claimed that February's figures stemmed from the federal government's policy of investment and reindustrialization of the country. “We stimulated a lot of investment, and this is the result,” he said. “We have a re-industrialization program, we are encouraging industry to prepare to produce health equipment instead of importing it. We're having a debate about the climate transition, encouraging investment; we want to produce SAF [Sustainable Aviation Fuel] in Brazil to replace polluting aircraft fuel,” he went on.

The biggest growth in formal employment last month was in the services sector, with the creation of 254,812 jobs, a variation of 1.1% compared to January. In industry, 69,884 jobs were created, a variation of 0.78%. In commerce, 46,587 jobs were created (0.44%); in construction, there were 40,871 jobs (1.41%); and in agriculture, there were 19,842 jobs or 1.08%.

The average salary was R$ 2,205.25 (US$ 382.83). Compared to the previous month, there was a R$ 79.41 drop in the average salary (-3.48 %).

Most jobs created in February were filled by women, who accounted for 229,163, while men held 202,832 positions. The age group with the highest balance was 18 to 24-year-olds, with 170,593 jobs. High school graduates accounted for 277,786 jobs.

In terms of salary range, jobs paying up to 1.5 minimum wages amounted to 312,790 jobs. In terms of race/color, brown people accounted for 269,129 jobs, while white people accounted for 189,245 jobs.

Except for Alagoas, all states had positive job creation results last month. In absolute terms, São Paulo generated the largest number of jobs, closing February with 137,581; followed by Minas Gerais, with 52,603 jobs, and Paraná, with 39,176 jobs.

On the opposite end, Alagoas lost 5,471 jobs, while Acre created only 429 new positions, with Paraíba slightly better at 525 new jobs.

Marinho noted, however, that the February figures were seasonally adjusted and that a drop in the number of jobs generated is expected for March. He also said he expected the policy of job creation to continue. “I hope the economy continues to heat up; after all, we still have a lot of people underemployed, unemployed,” he pointed out.

The minister once again criticized the increase in the Selic rate to 14.25% by the Monetary Policy Committee (Copom) earlier this month. “What seems to me to be happening is that the transition of the Central Bank had contracts in place, and they are being fulfilled. It's not recommended to ride roughshod over the economy and, therefore, the processes are being respected,” he mentioned.

“I think what is needed in Brazil is a great pact of more production to contain inflation, and not the other way around. It also seems to me that, with the increase in interest rates, people aren't going to stop eating meat, eggs, rice, and beans. The debate is different: we need to produce more,” said Marinho.

IBGE

The unemployment rate for the quarter ending in February was 6.8%. The result is 0.7 percentage points higher than in the previous quarter ending in November 2024 (6.1%). However, it is the lowest for a quarter ending in February since 2014, when it stood at 6.8%.

The labor market data is part of the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (Pnad Contínua), released Friday by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). According to survey coordinator Adriana Beringuy, the rise in unemployment compared to the previous quarter is a common trend at this time of year.

“It's an expected movement because in the transition period from the end of one year to the first months of the following year, there is, in fact, this downward movement in occupation,” she said.

The number of people out of work reached 7.5 million in the period, up 10.4% from the previous quarter. However, this figure is 12.5% lower than that recorded in the same quarter of 2024.

Of the ten activity groups surveyed by the IBGE, three showed a drop in the number of people employed: construction (-4.0%, or 310,000 fewer people), public administration, defense, social security, education, human health and social services (-2.5%, or 468,000 fewer people) and domestic services (-4.8%, or 290,000 fewer people).

According to Beringuy, the reduction in vacancies in the public administration group is also seasonal and has to do with the end of temporary workers' contracts.

The researcher also says that this seasonal behavior of the job market means that it is not possible to say that there are recessionary effects from the interest rate hike, a measure adopted by the Central Bank (BCB) to contain inflation.

“At the moment, I wouldn't attribute the effect of this variable to interest rates and the impact of household consumption on the labor market,” she argued.

In the quarter ending in January 2025, the rate stood at 6.5%, down from 6.8% in the period ending in February. However, the IBGE does not make the comparison between the immediately following intervals because there are months that are repeated in both periods (December and January), which distorts the comparison.

In the quarter ending in February, the country's employed population was 102.7 million people. This figure is 1.2% lower than in the period ending in November (1.2 million fewer people) but 2.4% higher than in the same period last year (2.4 million more people).

The IBGE survey also points out that the country reached a record high in the number of workers with a formal contract. There were 39.6 million contracts, the highest volume since the beginning of the historical series in 2012. In one year, there were 1.6 million more people (+4.1%) with a formal contract.

The IBGE study assesses the labor market behavior of people aged 14 and over and takes into account all forms of occupation, whether employment with or without a formal contract, temporary employment, or self-employment, for example.

The informality rate - workers who are not guaranteed rights such as vacations, Social Security contributions, and yearly bonuses fell “slightly” to 38.1% of the employed population, which represents 39.1 million informal workers. In both the quarter ending in November and the same period in 2024, the rate was 38.7%. (Source: Agencia Brasil)