Brazilian blacks tend to enter the job market at an earlier age and spend more of their lives working, according to a just released study by Brazil’s IPEA.
Among blacks in the 10-15 age bracket, 16.4% have jobs, compared with 12.6% of their white peers. At the other extreme, 34.7% of blacks 60 years old or more are still working, compared with 29.1% of whites in the same age group.
These data come from a study released yesterday by the Institute of Applied Economic Research (IPEA) and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (Unifem), entitled Portraits of Inequality – Race and Gender.
The document shows that women and blacks are the groups with the greatest difficulties in obtaining job positions, both formal and informal.
Unemployment also affects both groups. In 2003, 8% of men and 10.6% of whites were unemployed, whereas the unemployment rate was 12.4% for women and 12.6% for blacks.
The study also reveals that blacks work in occupations that are more insecure and afford less social protection than is the case for whites.
While 34.5% of white workers are legally registered, only 25.6% of blacks enjoy the same guarantees. Informal employment is also more common among blacks than among whites.
Among blacks, 22.4% are engaged in informal activities, compared with 16.2% of whites. Blacks also form the minority among employers. Only 2.3% of them are business owners, as against 5.9% of whites.
Agência Brasil