Brazil / Unemployment falls to record low but real wage bill growth is at its lowest level

Brazil’s wage growth is starting to ease.  It’s still growing, but it is growing much slower than it has in the last two years even as unemployment hit a record low in October.

Brazilian workers saw a monthly wage increase of 0.2% month over month in October, up 1.4% year over year. However, wages were rising close to, and over 1% for months.  Bruno Rovai of Barclays Capital in Sao Paulo said that investors should look beyond the low unemployment rate in order to access any softness of the labor market.

“The fact that the number of employed people is moving sideways and real wage bill growth is at its lowest level of the past couple of years does not suggest strength in the labor market,” he said.

The unemployment rate in Brazil printed below market expectations for October, at just 5.2%, lower than the 5.4% print of September. The 5.2% rate is the lowest ever for October. Last October’s unemployment level was 5.5%. The number of employed people remained flat during October, while the number of unemployed people decreased by 1.7% on the month, pushing the unemployment rate down.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at 

via Brazil’s Unemployment Falls To Record Low, But Wage Growth Stalls – Forbes.