Unemployment rate in Brazil rises to 14.6% – Govt
Latin America’s biggest country, Brazil unemployment rate has hit a record 14.6 percent as the pandemic hit the largest economy in Latin America, the government reported Friday.
The data for the July-September period was the third straight record for joblessness in Brazil.
Brazilian statistics institute IBGE reported that a total of 14.1 million workers were seeking jobs.
It also reported that 5.9 million have given up looking for work, which is another record, and a worrying sign for the economy.
During the same quarter last year, the unemployment rate was up from 11.8 percent and 14.4 percent for the June-August period in 2020.
The government reports unemployment numbers for rolling three-month periods and the current figure is the highest since that system was introduced in 2012.
Brazil with a population of 212 million people, entered a recession in the second quarter of the year with a record economic contraction of 9.7 percent.
The country has been hit hard by the pandemic, which has killed more than 170,000 people, the second-highest death toll worldwide, after the United States.