Brazil cuts 2011 new formal jobs target

BRASILIA: Brazil on Wednesday revised down its goal for new payroll jobs this year, another sign that Latin America's biggest economy could slow more than expected as worries abroad and flagging industrial output sap growth.

The country expects to add between 2.7 million and 3 million net formal jobs this year, Labor Minister Carlos Lupi said, down from a previous forecast of 3 million jobs.

"We will have a more exact estimate beginning next month," the minister said.

Brazil's economy added a net 190,446 payroll jobs in August, the Labor Ministry said on Wednesday, up from a previously reported net addition of 140,563 payroll jobs in July, but down from 215,393 in June and well below the net 299,415 formal jobs added in August 2010.

Brazil's economy surged 7.5 percent in 2010, its quickest growth in 24 years, driving unemployment to record lows at the end of last year.

But with industrial output sagging and monthly growth figures subsiding, compounded by worries that other major economies are still struggling, analysts see expansion this year at less than half the 2010 rate.

Still, even growth of around 3.56 percent, as expected in a weekly central bank survey of economists, would underscore the difference between emerging markets such as China and India and stumbling developed economies such as the United States and the euro zone.

Just over half of Brazil's work force is registered with the Labor Ministry, with payroll jobs entitling workers to social security benefits, while the rest of the working population belongs to a vast informal economy.

Copyright Reuters, 2011