According to an IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) survey of employment in Brazil’s main metropolitan regions, the percentage of workers in the shadow economy, who are off-the-books and do not have benefits, in 2003 was 15.5%; in 2009 it was 12.7%, and last year, 2010, it was 12.1%.
On the other hand, in 2003, the percentage of workers in the real economy, with benefits (registrados), was 39.7%. By 2009, that number had risen to 44.7%; and in 2010, it was up to 46.3%, reaching a total of 10.2 million (out of a total of 22 million workers in the country’s major urban centers).
The IBGE points out that whereas the population rose by 18.9% between 2002 and 2010, the number of workers in the real economy rose 38.7%. At the same time, the percentage of self-employed workers dropped from 20% to 18.4%.
Average unemployment in Brazil in 2010 was 6.7%, a historically low figure, reports the IBGE. For the sake of comparison, average unemployment in 2009 was 8.1%.
The IBGE employment figures are for the country’s principal metropolitan regions where a total of 22 million people had jobs in 2010, up 3.2%, compared to 2009. Thus, the unemployment figure (6.7%) works out to an average 1.6 million people without jobs at any given moment during the year.
Significantly, the number of workers on-the-books (“registrados” – as opposed to in the shadow economy, without benefits) in 2010 was the highest since 2003: 10.2 million, that is, 46.3% of the work force, compared to 44.7% in 2009.
Average take-home pay in 2010 was also the highest since 2003, at 1,490.61 reais (US$ 885.16), up 3.8% compared to 2009.
December 2010 turned out to be a good month for workers in Brazil. Unemployment fell to 5.3%, with only 1.3 million workers out of work, as take-home pay rose to an average 1,515.10 reais (US$ 899.70).