Unemployment rate 12.2% in first quarter

The country’s unemployment rate stood at 12.2 percent in the first quarter of this year. An increase was reported from the last quarter of 2019 (11%), but the amount is down from the first quarter of that year (12.7%). The figures come from the Continuous PNAD (National Household Sample Survey), released today (Apr. 30) by the government’s statistics agency IBGE.

Jobless people amounted to 12.9 million, up 10.5 percent (1.2 million new people) from the last quarter of 2019. Compared to the first quarter last year, however, this total slipped four percent (537 thousand people).

The employed population reached 92.2 million, down 2.5 percent from the previous quarter (2.3 million fewer people), despite having held steady against the same quarter of 2019.