BRASILIA, March 28, 2025 – Brazil’s unemployment rate has risen to 6.8% for the period from December to February, reflecting an increase of 0.7 percentage points compared to the previous three months, according to official figures released on Friday.
Despite this latest rise, which marks the third consecutive increase, it remains the lowest rate recorded for a quarter ending in February since 2014. Over the past year, the unemployment rate in Latin America’s largest country had been on a steady decline, reaching 6.1% during the September-November 2024 period—the lowest level since the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) implemented its current calculation method in 2012, which takes into account rolling quarters.
However, the rate subsequently climbed to 6.2% for the October-December period and then to 6.5% for November-January. During the December-February quarter, Brazil had 7.5 million individuals seeking employment, marking an increase of 701,000 from the September-November 2024 period, but down by 1.1 million compared to one year ago, representing a decrease of 12.5%.
