São Paulo – The average unemployment rate from January to December of last year stood at 6.8% throughout the country, an increase of two percentage points over 2014, when it registered 4.8%. According to data released this Thursday (28) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), in December the unemployment rate reached 6.9% of the working-age population, the highest rate for the month since 2007. In November, the rate marked 7.5%.
According to the IBGE, the average of the employed population in 2015 stood at 23.3 million people, a decline of 1.6% over 2014. Meanwhile, the average of the unemployed population stood at 1.7 million people, or 42.5% more than in 2014.
Last year, the population’s income also dropped, the first decline since 2004. According to IBGE, the income average of the employed population stood at BRL 2.265.09 (USD 553.39), or 3.7% less than in 2014. The Monthly Employment Survey by IBGE is done in the metro areas of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, Recife and Salvador.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
