Brazil Joblessness Rises to 11.8%

Brazil’s unemployment rate reached 11.8% in the June-July-August quarter of 2016, up from 11.2% from the previous three months and 8.7% in the same period last year, governmental statistics agency IBGE said, Xinhua reported. According to IBGE, the figures are the highest since March 2012 when IBGE started calculating quarterly unemployment rates instead of a monthly rate. The IBGE report said the number of unemployed people—over 14 actively seeking work—in Brazil reached 12 million in the quarter ending in August, up 5.1% from the previous three-month period. The figures also represent a staggering 36.6% rise from the number of unemployed people registered in the same period last year. The number of employed people totaled 90.8 million, stable from the previous quarter and down 1.5% from the same period last year. The average earnings of Brazilian workers in all sectors were 2,011 reals ($616.9), remaining stable both from the quarter ending in May 2016 and the quarter ending in August 2015.