Brazil’s first-quarter unemployment falls to record low of 7%
Brazil ended the first quarter of 2025 with an unemployment rate of 7 percent. Although higher than the 6.2 percent recorded in the previous quarter (ending in December), it is the lowest rate for the January-to-March period since the government’s statistics agency IBGE began the historical series in 2012.
The previous record was set in 2014, when the unemployment rate for the period stood at 7.2 percent. In 2024, it was 7.9 percent.
IBGE monitors the labor market behavior of individuals aged 14 and older, considering all types of occupation, including both formal and informal employment, temporary work, and self-employment, among others.
According to IBGE’s methodology, individuals who are not working and are not actively seeking employment are excluded from the calculation of the unemployment rate.
The survey reveals that the increase in unemployment from the fourth quarter of 2024 to the first quarter of 2025 is driven by a 13.1 percent rise in the number of people seeking work, reaching 7.7 million—891,000 more than in the period ending in December. However, compared to the same period in 2024, there was a 10.5 percent decrease in this group.
IBGE’s coordinator of Household Surveys, Adriana Beringuy, explains that the result reflects seasonal behavior, “a trend typically observed in the first quarters of each year.”
