LatinNews Daily - 02 November 2020

* Brazil’s national statistics institute (Ibge) has released the latest figures on unemployment, according to which the unemployment rate has risen to 14.4% in the June-August rolling quarter, up from 12.9% in the March-May rolling quarter, and from 11.8% in June-August 2019. This is the highest unemployment rate recorded since the Ibge’s current series began in 2012. Adriana Beringuy, an Ibge analyst, notes that the rising unemployment rate reflects the relaxation of restrictions against the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, as people who had given up looking for work in March and April have now rejoined the workforce, and are swelling the ranks of the unemployed. The employed population now numbers 81.7m, with 46.8% of working-age Brazilians in work – both new lows. Meanwhile, the number of working-age Brazilians outside the workforce has risen to 79.1m. Work in the informal sector, which had sunk with the onset of the pandemic, has begun to pick up, with 38% of employed Brazilians working in the informal sector (compared with 37.6% in the previous rolling quarter, and 41.4% over the same period last year).

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