Industrial employment has remained stable over the past two months, according to data released on Monday, October 17, by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) from its Survey of Industrial Employment and Salaries. The employment level in August was down 0.1% in comparison with July, after having risen 0.1% in July in comparison with June.
For André Macedo, an IBGE economist, this trend reflects the relative stability of industrial production over the same period (a 1.9% decrease between June and July and a 1.1% increase between July and August). "These results do not yet constitute a situation of deceleration in the sector, since the quarterly and annual indicators continue to register gains," he explained.
Despite the decline in the employment level between July and August, workers’ income rose 2.2% over the same period, after dropping for two months. According to Macedo, "the recovery in industrial workers’ purchasing power is a reflection of the maintenance of low prices, due to the fact that this year’s inflation indices are also lower than last year’s." In comparison with August, 2004, the industrial payroll was up 5.3%, expanding in the 14 regions covered by the IBGE survey.
The level of industrial employment was 0.3% higher than in August, 2004. This was the eighteenth consecutive increase on a month-to-month basis, but it was the smallest since April, 2004, when the increase was 0.1%.
Using the same basis of comparison (August, 2005, compared with August, 2004), the sectors that did the most hiring were food and beverages (8.1%) and transportation equipment (7.3%). The places where most of the hiring occurred were São Paulo (2.6%), Minas Gerais (3.4%), and the North and Center-West region (3.8%).
The largest number of workers were fired in Rio Grande do Sul (-8.5%) and the Northeast region (-1.9%), especially in the segments of footwear and leather goods (-16.1%) and wood (-13.8%). The total number of hours for which industrial workers were paid rose 0.3% in relation to July, 2005, and 0.5% in relation to August, 2004.
Agência Brasil