Brazil reduces unemployment rate with support from small businesses

The unemployment rate in Brazil fell once again. In the quarter ending in May, the index reached 6.2%, indicating a reduction of 0.6 percentage points compared to the quarter ending in February. The drop was almost 1 percentage point (pp) compared to the same period in 2024. The data are from the Continuous Monthly National Household Sample Survey (PNAD), released this Friday (27) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

The study also highlights that the number of workers with formal employment contracts in the private sector reached a record level (39.8 million) , registering an increase of 0.8% compared to the previous quarter and 3.7% compared to last year.

The data corroborates the importance of the small business sector for the national economy. This is because small businesses – individual microentrepreneurs (MEI), microenterprises (ME) and small businesses (EPP) – were responsible for around 60% of the jobs generated up until April, according to a survey by Sebrae based on data from the General Registry of Employed and Unemployed Persons (Caged). Since January, 546,833 people have been hired by the sector throughout the country.

Small businesses are the great engine of national development, they generate employment and income so that our population has more dignity.

Decio Lima, president of Sebrae.

“These are men and women who wake up in the morning and never give up. They use their creativity to create their own businesses, ensuring inclusion and supporting the growth of the economy led by President Lula and Vice President Geraldo Alckmin,” adds Décio.

Another important piece of information for Sebrae was addressed by the survey. IBGE found that the informality rate (proportion of informal workers in the employed population) was 37.8%, which corresponds to 39.3 million informal workers. This rate was lower than that recorded in both the previous moving quarter (38.1%) and the same quarter of 2024 (38.6%). There was also a 3.7% increase in the number of self-employed workers with CNPJ (249 thousand more) in the quarterly comparison and an 8.4% increase in the annual comparison. .

This increase is closely monitored by Sebrae. Between January and May of this year alone, Brazil registered the opening of 2.21 million new small businesses. The result is 24.9% higher than that seen in the same period last year and represents more than 97% of all companies started in the country. In May alone, there were more than 409.3 thousand new small businesses. The data is part of a cross-referencing of data based on information from the Federal Revenue Service.