The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) reported on Tuesday that Brazil’s unemployment rate fell to 5.2% in the three-month period ending in November, marking the lowest level since the start of the historical series using the current criteria in 2012.

This figure represents a drop of two-tenths of a percentage point compared to the quarter ending in October (5.4%) and a decrease of 0.9 percentage points year-on-year. The positive indicator is reflected in concrete numbers: the total number of unemployed fell to 5.6 million, also the lowest figure in 14 years.

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At the same time, the country reached a record high in employment, with 103.2 million Brazilians employed. Job growth over the past year was primarily driven by the private sector, with notable gains in transportation, warehousing, and postal services (+3.9%), and by the public sector in areas such as defense, education, and social security (+5.6%). In addition, self-employment increased by 2.9%.

The employment rate, that is, the proportion of people aged 14 and over who are working, reached its highest percentage in the historical series of the National Continuous Household Sample Survey, at 59%.

Throughout the historical series, the highest number of unemployed people occurred in the quarter ending March 2021, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when this indicator registered 14.9 million people without formal employment.

Latin America’s largest economy grew by only 0.1% in the third quarter of 2025, and the government projects an expansion of 2.4% for the year, compared to the 3.4% recorded in 2024.

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