Brazil Jobless Rate Rises to 12.9% in 3 Months Through May

By Jeffrey T. Lewis

SAO PAULO--Brazil's unemployment rate rose in the three months through May, with workers in the informal economy particularly hard hit as social-distancing measures shut down non-essential businesses.

The jobless rate reached 12.9% in the three months through May, from 12.6% in the three months through April and 12.3% in the year-earlier period, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, or IBGE said Tuesday.

The shuttering of businesses to help slow the spread of the coronavirus has slammed service providers such as hairdressers and taxi drivers and non-food retailers, because it is either much more difficult, or impossible, to do that kind of work online.

Many companies in those sectors have been forced to lay off workers to reduce their expenses, according to Dennis Herszkowicz, chief executive officer of business technology and services company TOTVS SA.

"They've gone a long time without being able to operate, and they have high fixed costs," he said. "They've had to make some kind of adjustment" to try to stay solvent.

The number of people employed in Brazil fell to 85.9 million in the three months through May, in a country with 210 million residents, the lowest figure since the series began in 2012, the IBGE said. In the three months through April there were 89.2 million people employed in Brazil.

The number of people with private-sector jobs registered with the government fell to 31.1 million from 32.2 million in the period through April, and the number of people with informal jobs fell to 9.2 million from 10.1 million.

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