Brazil’s unemployment rates are expected to continue rising in the coming months. This observation was made, Thursday, March 23, by Cimar Azeredo, coordinator of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics’ (IBGE) Monthly Employment Survey.
According to the technical specialist, the statistics show that, historically, unemployment rates are always higher in the first quarter of the year.
This is so, because the country’s economy only begins to heat up in March, and it takes a while for the job market to reflect this upturn in activity.
Azeredo affirmed that, at this moment, it is not possible to assess the meaning of the 0.9 percentage point rise in the unemployment rate from 9.2% in January to 10.1% in February.
This increase was greater than what occurred in past years during the same period, but, in his view, only after the data for March are available will it be possible to determine whether February’s rate denotes an upward trend or is merely a protracted rebound from the big drop that occurred in December, when the unemployment rate dipped to 8.3%.
Azeredo pointed out that the indices in the first months of the year reflect the aftermath of situations that existed in the second half of the previous year.
In his view, only in the second quarter of this year will the rates give an idea of the direction in which the country’s work and employment conditions will move.
Agência Brasil