The services sector already has segments with unemployment below pre-pandemic rates

A study released on Tuesday (21) by the Institute of Applied Economic Research (IPEA), an autarchy linked to the Ministry of Economy, points out that, despite the contingent of 13.5 million unemployed, unemployment in the country is in a slow and reached the lowest rate since the second quarter of 2020. The publication also shows that there are already sectors of the economy in which the rate is lower than that of the third quarter of 2019, the pre-pandemic period.

The study was produced from data from the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (PNAD). In seasonally adjusted analyses, the unemployment rate for the third quarter of 2021 was 12.5%. The drop in unemployment, according to the researchers, occurs in all regions and in practically all age and educational segments.

The reason for the phenomenon is an expansion of the employed population, of 11.4% in the third quarter, compared to 2020. This increase is precisely one of the reasons for the more moderate growth projections for 2022, as pointed out by economist Maria Andréia Parente Lameiras, from the Directorate of Macroeconomic Studies and Policies (Dimac/Ipea).

“The projections for 2022 are all much more timid, due to several issues that involve exchange and monetary policies. Nobody expects growth of this magnitude next year. However, employment growth should be sustained, mainly, by the advance in the recovery of the services sector”, evaluates the researcher.

The South and Midwest regions showed the best job recovery and, in the third quarter of 2021, they already had occupation levels higher than those of the same period in 2019. When analyzed by gender, the study shows that the decline unemployment rate has been more intense among men: it dropped from 12.9% to 10.1%, and is already very close to the pre-pandemic index of 10%. Among women, unemployment rose from 17.5% to 15.9%.

In an analysis by activity sectors, the study found that the segments with better results than those in the pre-pandemic environment are those of business-oriented services and personal services, focused on recreation and leisure.

According to the researcher, the data does not portray a surprise. “The pandemic affected men less. With her, it’s not that there were many layoffs among women. In many cases, they themselves gave up their jobs during the period, so they could stay at home, taking care of children and the elderly. This portion has suffered more, so it is recovering more slowly”, he concludes.

The most accentuated resumption occurs in informality, benefited by the resumption of services, provided by the advance of the vaccination campaign against Covid-19 and by the relaxation of restrictive measures. Proportionately, the highest unemployment rates were found in Pernambuco (19.3%), Bahia (18.3%), Alagoas (17.1%) and Sergipe (17%), all of them in the Northeast.

Reference: CNN Brasil

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