RIO DE JANEIRO, July 30 (Xinhua) -- The unemployment rate in Brazil registered 14.6 percent in the three months from March to May, meaning about 14.8 million people were out of work, the state-run Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) said on Friday.
According to the IBGE, unemployment held steady compared to the previous three-month period (December 2020 to February 2021), when 14.4 million people were jobless, but rose 1.7 percentage points compared to the same period last year, when 12.7 million people were unemployed.
Brazil's total employed population from March to May was 86.7 million people, 0.9 percent (or 809,000 people) more than the previous three months, and stable compared to the same period in 2020.
The informal sector held 40 percent of the employed population, or about 34.7 million people, slightly higher than the 39.6 percent in the previous three months and the 37.6 percent in the same quarter last year.
Brazil registered record-high unemployment of 14.7 percent in the three months ending April, equivalent to 14.8 million jobless people, reflecting the strong impact of COVID-19 on the economy.
