Brazil’s new Minister of Labor, Luiz Marinho, who was the president of Brazil’s biggest labor union, the CUT, says his goal is to create an average of 100,000 new jobs per month between now and the end of the Luiz Inácio Lula de Silva presidency in December 2006.
"This is the challenge we have accepted. Create 100,000 new on-the-books jobs per month. The message we are sending is that the economy will continue growing, creating jobs and providing work for men and women who are unemployed," said Marinho.
As for the Lula campaign promise to create 10 million jobs in his four-year term of office, Marinho said it was still possible. He pointed out that in the first two and a half years in office, Lula had created over 3 million jobs.
"If every job we create in the formal job market creates a job in the informal market, then we will in fact create 10 million jobs," said the Minister.
One of the first things Marinho did after taking office was to announce that the formal job market had grown for the sixth consecutive month in June, with 195,895 new jobs.
He also expressed confidence in a stronger second half, adding that interest rates should begin to fall.
ABr