Brazil unemployment rate falls to 5.2% in November, lowest since June 2025

Brazil’s unemployment rate stood at 5.2% in the three-month period ending in November, official figures from the National Household Sample Survey (Pnad Contínua) released by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) show. The reading matches the lowest level recorded in the historical series since the quarter that ended in June 2025, signalling continued improvement in the labour market.

Brazil unemployment rate at record low with rising pay

The 5.2% jobless rate met the floor of market estimates collected by Projeções Broadcast, whose median projection had been 5.5% and whose upper bound reached 5.6%. A year earlier, in the same quarter of 2024, the unemployment rate was 6.1%, while the previous rolling quarter to October registered 5.4%.

Wages showed notable gains alongside falling unemployment. Real average monthly earnings for workers rose to R$3,574, a 4.5% increase from the same quarter of 2024. The habitual real wage mass — the total pay distributed to employed people — totalled R$363.7 billion in the quarter to November, up 5.8% year-on-year.

Formal hiring and job composition

The private sector contributed materially to job creation. Compared with the quarter to August, there were 236,000 more formal private-sector positions with signed employment contracts. On an annual basis, the private sector created 979,000 positions. The total number of private-sector workers with signed contracts reached 39.354 million in the quarter to November.

At the same time, the number of workers without formal contracts stood at 13.632 million, up by 124,000 from the previous quarter and by 486,000 compared with the same period in 2024. Self-employment increased by 112,000 in the quarter, reaching 26.045 million, and was 734,000 higher than a year earlier.

Falling underutilisation and discouraged workers

Measures of labour underutilisation also improved. The composite underutilisation rate — which combines unemployment, underemployment due to insufficient hours and the potential labour force of people not actively seeking work but available to take a job — fell from 14.1% in the quarter to August to 13.5% in the quarter to November. In the same quarter of 2024 the rate was 15.3%.

The number of discouraged workers (people outside the labour force who said they would take a job if available) fell to 2.605 million, a decline of 63,000 from the quarter to August and 386,000 fewer than a year earlier, a drop of 12.9%.

Informality remains high but eased slightly

Informal work remains a significant feature of Brazil’s labour market, with an informality rate of 37.7% and 38.817 million workers operating informally in the period. Nevertheless, the number of informal workers fell by 61,000 from the previous quarter.

The survey also showed that 15.377 million people lacked sufficient work in the quarter to November, and the total underutilised population fell by 3.9% versus the quarter to August — 627,000 fewer people — and declined by 11.9% year-on-year, a reduction of roughly 2.07 million individuals.

Taken together, the latest IBGE figures point to a healthier labour market, with lower unemployment, rising real wages and a shrinking pool of underutilised and discouraged workers. While informality remains a structural challenge, the short-term trend supports domestic demand and could influence near-term fiscal and monetary considerations.