BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s economy created a net 131,811 formal jobs in May, labor ministry data released on Thursday showed, falling short of 200,000 forecasts in a Reuters poll of economists.
The figure represents 2,116,326 admissions and 1,984,515 closed jobs. It is the worst figure for a May since 2020, when a net of 398,294 jobs were lost during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The number of formal hiring was affected by historic flooding in Brazil’s southernmost state, Rio Grande do Sul, said Paula Montagner, undersecretary of statistics at the ministry.
Without that, the net positions created would have been equal to the 155,704 of May 2023, she said.
All economic segments included in the data saw job growth, with the crucial services sector leading the way with 69,309 formal net hires.
A net 1,088,955 jobs were created from January through May, compared with 874,289 in the same period last year, according to seasonally adjusted data from the ministry.
(Reporting by Bernardo Caram; additional reporting by Victor Borges; editing by Richard Chang)
