Friday, 27 September 2019

Informality breaks the historical record in the Brazilian labor market

According to the National Continuous Household Sample Survey (PNAD Contínua), released today by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), 41.4% of the employed population is in informality. Of the 684,000 new employed persons, 87.1% entered the job market informally.

Therefore, almost 40 million workers are in informality. According to IBGE data, in the quarter ended in August, Brazil had 38.8 million informal workers. It is the highest level of informality in the Brazilian labor market ever recorded by PNAD Contínua.

A survey by the Getulio Vargas Foundation Social Policy Center and released by the BBC Brazil shows that between 2014 and 2017, Brazil gained a contingent of 6.27 million "new poor". These are people who lost their jobs and started to live in poverty, with income from work of less than R$ 233 per month (around 56 dollars a month). As wages are the main source of income for poor and vulnerable families, poverty in Brazil in the sharpest period of the recession has increased by 33%, and the country's total poverty has risen to 23.3 million, according to the survey.

All this added to the reforms made by the Temer and Bolsonaro governments that continually removed labor rights in what was called labor market flexibility helped to increase informality. Now, in Brazil, many people work but have no vacation, 13 salário, Fundo de Garantia (FGTS). This scenario, contrary to what was promised (to improve the population's life), deepened inequality in the country.

During Michel Temer's administration, then Economy Minister Henrique Meirelles even said that the new labor law would produce over 6 million jobs. Two years after the reform comes into force, instead of the 6 million jobs promised, what is seen is a worsening of workers' quality of life and an increase in informality in the labor market.

In turn, Paulo Guedes, Minister of Economy of the Jair Bolsonaro government, also advocates the creation of a new work card in which workers will not be entitled to benefits earned by various categories under union agreements.

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