Brazil: 1.69 Million Jobs Created in 2024

Brazil, the country that currently chairs the BRICS group, will create 1.69 million new jobs in 2024, 16.5% more than in the previous year. Brazil’s Labor Ministry said in a statement that during 2024, “25.57 million hires and 23.87 million layoffs were registered.”

The largest number of new jobs were created in services (929,000), followed by trade (336,100) and manufacturing (306,900). The top three Brazilian states for job creation are São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Minas Gerais.

As a result, Brazil’s unemployment rate fell to 6.2% in the fourth quarter of 2024, 1.2 percentage points lower than in October-December 2023. According to data from the National Institute of Statistics (IBGE) cited by the Brazilian press, the average annual unemployment rate now stands at 6.6% of the active population, down 1.2 percentage points from the previous year. As of the end of 2024, there were 6.8 million unemployed in this Latin American country, 1.4 million fewer than in December 2023.

After chairing the G20 in 2023-2024, Brazil, starting January 1, 2025, became chair of BRICS, an international grouping that controls more than a third of the world’s GDP, according to the Foreign Affairs magazine.

In response to the US decision to impose new customs duties against Mexico, Canada, and China, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (pictured) said that if the US imposes duties on Brazilian products, Brazil will immediately retaliate. “If (Trump) decides to tax Brazilian products, Brazil will do the same with imports from the USA,” Lula said during a meeting with reporters. The Brazilian president also said he sent Donald Trump a letter wishing him to “govern the United States,” emphasizing that the American leader must respect the sovereignty of other countries. “I want to respect the United States, and I want Trump to respect Brazil,” the Brazilian president concluded.