Brazil ends 2022 with an average unemployment rate of 9.3%, the lowest since 2015

Brazil ended 2022 with an average unemployment rate of 9.3%, the lowest since 2015. There was a reduction of 3.9 percentage points compared to 2021, when the rate reached 13.2%. The average unemployed population in the year totaled 10 million people, a drop of 3.9 million (-27.9%) compared to 2021. The data was released this Tuesday (28) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics ( IBGE).

Also according to data from the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (Continuous PNAD), the unemployment rate in the country reached 7.9% in the quarter ended in December 2022, a drop of 0.8 percentage points compared to the previous quarter. from July to September.

“The year 2021 was one of transition, coming out of the worst moment in the historical series, under the impact of the pandemic and the isolation that occurred in 2020. 2022 marks the consolidation of the recovery process” said Adriana Beringuy, coordinator of Work and Income at IBGE . In two years, unemployment in the labor market fell by 4.5 percentage points.

According to IBGE, the average employed population reached 98 million people in 2022, the highest annual average of the historical series and 7.4% above 2021. Compared to 2012, when the annual average of the employed population was 89.6 million people, there was an increase of 9.4%. The annual average number of employees with a work permit increased by 9.2% and reached 35.9 million people.

Fastest growing activities

Among the activities, only Agriculture, livestock, forest production, fishing and aquaculture had a percentage decrease in the employed population (-1.6%) and started to register 8.7 million workers in 2022. Other services was the activity with the highest percentage of increase in the employed population (17.8%) between 2021 and 2022, from 4.4 to 5.2 million workers.

The group formed by Accommodation and food activities also had an important growth in 2022, of 15.8%, and with that, its contingent was 5.3 million workers. Commerce, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles accumulated a gain of 9.4% (1.6 million more people) in the comparison between 2021 and 2022. General Industry in Brazil recorded, in 2022, 12.6 million workers, corresponding to to an increase of 6.3% (more 753 thousand people) compared to 2021.