RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's unemployment rate fell to 11.8 percent in the quarter ending in July, but formal employment remains low, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) said Friday.
It was the fourth consecutive fall in the unemployment rate. However, despite the lower rate, 12.6 million Brazilians remain unemployed.
According to IBGE, the fall of the unemployment rate wasn't accompanied by a rise in formal employment. The informal employment rate, however, hit a record high of 41.3 percent, which represents 38.6 million people.
IBGE analyst Cimar Azeredo said that while in the last quarter formal employment registered an increase, figures from the May-July quarter indicate that citizens are turning to self-employment and informal work, such as domestic workers.
"In the crises of 2003 and 2008, the job market started to recover starting from informal employment, which allowed the market to recuperate, and gradually the informal jobs were replaced by formal ones," Azeredo said.
"But the current crisis, in addition to lasting much longer than the others, eliminated many more jobs," Azeredo added.
The Brazilian economy still suffers the effects of an economic crisis from 2015 to 2016, the country's worst ever recession, when the gross domestic product had fallen for two consecutive years.
Informal employment is considered less secure, as workers do not have the protections of labor laws and the guarantees supplied by formal contracts. In addition, salaries tend to be higher in formal employment.
