Women in the recent recovery of the Brazilian labor market

Abstract

In recent years the Brazilian labor market has shown signs of recovery, especially in the higher number of registered employees. The economically active population, in the broad concept of the Brazilian Census Office (IBGE), is distributed, on the one hand, between labor for others, which includes employees of establishments, paid domestic work and the unemployed and, on the other, self-employed workers, the members of families who work without payment, employers, workers in farming for the family’s own consumption, and those in self-construction. In the labor market for others, women show the highest rates of unemployment and of informality in terms of employment relations. In self-employed work the presence of women is greater among the nonpaid and in farming for families’ own consumption, whereas the men are more present among the self-employed and employers. The labor market for others encompasses two-thirds of the PEA, and has recently been growing faster than the self-employed sector. In this same market for others, formally registered employment has grown more than non-registered employment. The proportion of women has grown in both types of work, but the differences in income by gender continue to be considerable. Despite their being more present, women continue to be segregated into occupations of lower income, both in the labor market for others and among the self-employed.