Rio de Janeiro – The unemployment rate ended the year at 6.8%, in decline when compared to 2013, in which the rate was of 7.1%. In 2012, the same rate stood at 7.4%. The data was released this Tuesday (10th) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) and points to a higher rate if compared to data from the Monthly Employment Survey (PEM, in the Portuguese acronym), also conducted by IBGE, which indicated 4.8%. However, PEM is calculated in six of the main regions of the country.
In the fourth quarter of last year, the unemployment rate was of 6.5% considering the whole country, registering a drop in comparison to the 6.8% figure of the third quarter. When compared to the fourth quarter of 2013, which registered 6.2%, the unemployment rate went up. The data released indicated that the unemployed population declined from the third to the fourth quarter, going from 6.7 million to 6.5 million people.
Covering a higher number of the country’s regions, the Continuous Brazilian National Household Sample Survey (Pnad Contínua), will replace the current Monthly Employment Survey (PEM), which covers only the metropolitan regions of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, Salvador and Recife.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
