RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil's jobless rate edged higher in November and surpassed forecasts, a sign the labor market is weakening as Latin America's largest economy stagnates.
Brazil's non-seasonally adjusted jobless rate rose to 4.8 percent in November from 4.7 percent in October, statistics agency IBGE said on Friday. The number was above the median forecast of 4.4 percent in a Reuters poll of 20 economists.
"This understates the weakening of the job market over the past year, since the labor force participation rate also fell," Bill Adams, senior international economist for PNC Financial Services Group, said in a note to clients.
Although the unemployment rate remained near all-time lows, Brazil's stubbornly high inflation rate and rising interest rates have been cooling the country's job market.
Brazil created only 8,381 jobs in November, the worst performance ever for that month as the manufacturing, civil construction and agriculture sectors laid off workers, according to Labor Ministry data released on Thursday.
The number of Brazilians with jobs climbed 0.5 percent in November from October to 23.4 million people, while those who failed to find jobs grew by 4.4 percent to 1.2 million in the monthly comparison, according to IBGE.
Monthly real income rose 0.7 percent, on average, in November from October and 2.7 percent from a year earlier, to 2,148.50 reais ($810.75), the IBGE said.
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