Women represent 43% of the Economically Active Population (EAP), in Brazil, and blacks, 46%. Altogether these two groups account for approximately 70% of the EAP, that is, 60 million of the 88 million people engaged in the Brazilian job market.
These data are contained in the “Training and Information Manual on Gender, Race, Poverty, and Employment,” released this week by the International Labor Organization (ILO).
“This manual is important as a reference for administrators at the federal, municipal, and state level on how to apply government policies taking into account the promotion of race and gender equality in the area of labor and employment,” said Minister Matilde Ribeiro of the Special Secretariat for the Promotion of Racial Equality (Seppir).
The manual is already being used in some cities in training workshops for government policy-makers.
“We hope to offer practical tools to strengthen the understanding of social inequalities based on gender and race in Brazil and encourage the incorporation of these themes in government policies aimed at the elimination of poverty and social exclusion and the creation of jobs and decent work,” said the OIT director in Brazil, Laís Abramo.
The OIT is implementing similar programs in Asia, Africa, the Arab countries, and nine other Latin American countries. Brazil was the first country to incorporate the racial dimension in the manuals.
According to data from the National Residential Sample Survey (Pnad), the average rate of unemployment in Brazil varied between 6% and 9% from 1992 to 2001.
Throughout this period, the unemployment rates for women at different schooling and age levels were always higher than for men. The same is true for blacks in relation to whites, for both sexes.
Agência Brasil