Brazil's jobless rate hits record 14.6%: government

RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil's unemployment rate has hit a record 14.6 percent as the pandemic slammed Latin America's largest economy, the government reported Friday.

The figure for the July-September period was the third straight record for joblessness in Brazil.

A total of 14.1 million workers were seeking jobs, said Brazilian statistics institute IBGE.

Another 5.9 million have given up looking for work -- another record, and a worrying sign for the economy.

The unemployment rate was up from 11.8 percent during the same quarter last year and 14.4 percent for the June-August period in 2020.

The government reports unemployment numbers for rolling three-month periods.

The latest rate was the highest since that system was introduced in 2012.

Brazil, Latin America's biggest country, with 212 million people, entered a recession in the second quarter of the year with a record economic contraction of 9.7 percent.

It has been hit hard by the pandemic, which has killed more than 170,000 people in Brazil, the second-highest death toll worldwide, after the United States.