Rio de Janeiro – Brazilian industry employment was down 0.5% in May from April this year. It is the first decline this year, after the indicator had remained level for the first two months, was up slightly by 0.2% in March, and levelled off again in April. The figures were released in the Monthly Industrial Employment and Wage Survey (Pimes, in the Portuguese acronym) released this Wednesday (10th) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).
May-on-May, the decline was even sharper (-0.7%). Year-to-date, the decline was 0.8%. In the last 12-month period, industry employment was down 1.3%.
Of the 18 industry sectors surveyed, nine saw a decline in employment levels May-on-May. The sectors in which employment declined the most were shoes and leather (-6.5%), machinery and equipment (-3.3%), other processing industry products (-4.4%), electrical-electronics and communications machinery and devices (-3.5%) and apparel (-2.5%).
On the other hand, however, according to the IBGE survey, the actual wage bill was up 1.7% in May from April this year, 5.8% May-on-May, 2.8% year-to-date, and 3.9% in the last 12-month period.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
