Daily Times

Brazil’s unemployment rate rose slightly to 11.2 percent for the November-January quarter, the government reported Friday. Average incomes dropped 10 percent over the previous year, it added. The unemployment rate was slightly lower than the 11.3 percent expected by analysts consulted by the business daily Valor, and marks the first rise after nine consecutive drops. Brazil measures unemployment in rolling periods of three months.

The rate for the October-December quarter stood at 11.1 percent. January’s figure — published by Brazil’s statistics agency, IBGE — nonetheless showed a strong improvement over the same period last year, when the rate was 14.5 percent. While the rate remains relatively high, it is the lowest level for the November-January quarter since 2016, when it was at 9.7 percent.

Twelve million workers remain jobless in Latin America’s largest economy. According to IBGE’s Adriana Beringuy, the decrease in unemployment is largely due to the recovery in retail, a sector whose number of employees is now higher than before the pandemic, thanks to a recovery in consumption.