Brazil’s National Confederation of Industry (CNI) announced that the number of jobs in the Brazilian industry has grown 5.9% since December, 2003, and that this figure should attain 8% by December of this year.
The CNI informed that both the increase in the number of jobs in the sector and the projection for the end of the year surpass the indices registered in the first year of the Real Plan and have no parallel since the CNI began to compile industrial indicators in 1992.
This information comes from the coordinator of the technical staff of the CNI’s Economic Policy Unit, Flávio Castelo Branco.
Between January and September, the industrial work contingent rose every month, and the monthly growth rate since June has exceeded 0.7%.
In the most recent quarter (July/September), the rate of growth amounted to 5.01% in comparison with the corresponding quarter of 2003. The previous record, 2.51%, was set in the first quarter of 2001.
Another aspect highlighted in the CNI study was the increase in industrial salaries. The salary mass has grown 11.09% over the past 12 months.
Since the stabilization of prices in 1995, this is the first time that growth in these terms has amounted to a double-digit figure.
According to the CNI, the trend for a recovery in workers’ salaries is a solid one that has lasted for 18 months.
Despite the favorable employment and salary indicators, sales of manufactured goods were down 1.27% between August and September, after factoring out seasonal influences (specific characteristics that exert an influence on industrial production at certain times of year).
For the CNI, however, this glitch should not be seen as an interruption of the growth trend but rather as a retraction of the growth rate back to a sustainable baseline.
Compared with the previous quarter, industrial sales in the third quarter increased 0.36%, when season influences are eliminated.
This is the fifth consecutive quarter in which sales have grown. Since January they have increased 16.87% altogether.
Agência Brasil
Translator: David Silberstein