Brazil Economy: Unemployment Rate Rises to 8.9 Percent

For the third quarter of the year, the jobless rate of Brazil has climbed to 8.9 percent.

RTT News said the unemployment rate, as expected, rose after a three-month period which ended in September. This is tagged to be "the highest level in the series history."

It added that the rate increased from 8.3 percent during the second quarter. It also reportedly matched with consensus estimate.

According to RTT News, this is the highest number since 2012 noting that in the same quarter last year, it was only at 6.8 percent.

The rate stated that 9 million people are unemployed in Brazil for the third quarter. Part of this includes the youth unemployment rate which is at 19.7 percent.

In addition, AgenciaBrasil noted that the result was released by Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) on Tuesday during its Continuous National Household Sample Survey - Quarterly (Continuous PNAD).

It also noted that the country has a population of 92.1 million people and the 9 million unemployed may just be a small number. But the same report said that the survey also revealed having 35.4 million "working under formal employment contracts in the private sector in the third quarter."

For its official report, the IBGE said women also occupied almost half of the total number of unemployed individuals.

"The percentage of women in the population unoccupied was higher than men in almost all regions. The exception was the Northeast, where they represented 48.9% of the unemployed," read the survey results.

The IBGE also reported that most of the unemployed people in Brazil were able to finish high school, while others even acquired a college diploma.

Last August, the Wall Street Journal said that the deterioration in the job market of the country was a result of the expected recession in the country.

The same report said that this rising unemployment rate has raised pressure for Brazil President Dilma Rousseff, whose approval rates have also plummeted in the past months.

"Ms. Rousseff's popularity has been weighed down by the bad economy, rising inflation, and a massive corruption scandal surrounding state-run energy firm Petróleo Brasileiro SA, where she served as chairwoman from 2003 to 2010," added the Wall Street Journal.

Economist João Pedro Ribeiro shared the same report, saying that this outcome was something he forecasted to happen some months ago. He added that there is even a big possibility that the rise in the unemployment rate will continue until next year and hit double digits.

"A lot of arguments for why parts of the fiscal adjustment haven't passed is that the economy is already bad and so they shouldn't double down on contractionary policies. It makes the government's life that much more difficult," Ribeiro said in the Wall Street Journal report.