Weekly Report - 30 September 2003

BRAZIL | Jobless rate rises again. The official open unemployment rate in August reached 13%, prompting the inevitable headlines about a new record. It was actually only slightly higher overall than the 12.8% registered in July, though this was the outcome of very uneven performance in the urban centres regularly surveyed by Ibge. A 4.2% fall in Rio's jobless rate did much to offset significant rises elsewhere. These ranged from 1.8 points in São Paulo, the country's industrial hub, to more than three points in Recife and Salvador.