Families under pressure: Impacts of unemployment and substandard living conditions in three Brazilian cities

Abstract

This article addresses the consequences of the crisis in the labor market for families living in the greater metropolitan areas of Salvador, Belo Horizonte and Porto Alegre, Brazil. Based on data from the PNAD for the period between 1995 and 2004, it presents a brief diagnosis of the family structures in these regions and their respective labor markets and analyzes the behavior of unemployment and the process of growing instability. It then identifies the types of families that have been affected by these processes and the distribution of the main risks related to the labor market in terms of persons’ positions in the family, separating the differences among the three regions studied. Finally, the article discusses the extent to which the stage reached by unemployment and instability in each region can be explained by the particularities of a family structure, or if, on the contrary, the characteristics of its economy and the resulting impacts imposed by the productive restructuring are determining factors for growing in stability and changes in family structures.