SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazil’s jobless rate fell to 8.3% in the three months through October, statistics agency IBGE said on Wednesday, below market expectations as the key indicator continues to hover around seven-year lows.
The median forecast in a Reuters poll had projected an unemployment rate of 8.5%, after it hit 8.7% in the rolling quarter through September.
The fresh data represented the lowest unemployment level in Latin America’s largest economy since July 2015 and the lowest for the August-October period in eight years, IBGE said.
The number of employed people, it added, rose to 99.7 million, a new record for the series that started in 2012.
“This trend has been underway since the second half of 2021, and as we approach the final months of the year – a period in which there is historically an increase in job creation – it continues,” research manager Adriana Beringuy said in a report.
Brazil’s government has been betting on an improving labor market to drive economic growth in 2022, with Economy Minister Paulo Guedes saying he expected the jobless rate to drop to 8% before the end of the year.
The latest data marked a good start to the fourth quarter on a relatively healthy economy and the lagged impact from fiscal support, said Pantheon Macroeconomics’ chief Latin America economist Andres Abadia.
He cautioned, however, that recent surveys suggested the momentum was slowing.
“Tight financial conditions, increased policy uncertainty, and deteriorating external fundamentals point to a modest increase in the unemployment rate during the first half of next year,” Abadia said.
(Reporting by Gabriel Araujo; Editing by Gareth Jones)
