The largest gaps in the workforce have not been salaried workers, but self-employed, autonomous, independent and cooperative workers, among others.  Moreover, the type of self-employed work that has really expanded is what is traditionally called “autonomous” work—which is characterized, in general, by poor working conditions and income.  Currently, unemployment has become a complex and very heterogeneous phenomenon, achieving a generalized form in practically all segments of society, including spheres with high levels of education, experienced professionals and workers with the highest salaries.  It is thus possible to conclude that there are no longer any strata of Brazilian society that are immune to unemployment.

The Denial of the Right to Work

Marcio Pochmann[1]

            Since the 1990’s the phenomenon of mass unemployment in Brazil is an incontestable reality.  In 2002, for example, Brazil had the fourth highest unemployment rate in the world, behind only India, Indonesia and Russia. 

In 1986, however, Brazil was thirteenth in global unemployment.  Since the beginning of the 1990’s the unemployment rate increased greatly, propelling Brazil into the foursome of countries with the worst unemployment rates on the globe.

Despite representing 3.1% of the total global workforce, Brazil has 6.6% of global unemployment.  Even though Brazil has a smaller population than has China or the United States, the number of unemployed was nonetheless greater in Brazil during the 1990’s.

           As we enter the 21st century Brazil continues to belong to the group of countries with the highest number of people out of work in the world.  Moreover, high unemployment continues to absorb a very large proportion of the national work force.

           In large measure, the development of mass unemployment reveals something wider about the general restructuring of the labour market in Brazil.  It is worth pointing out, however, that for the nearly five decades of national industrialization (1930—80) considerable advances were made in the structure of salaried labour, especially in registered employment.  There was an almost complete absence of open unemployment.

          With the restructuring of the labour market beginning in the 1980’s, the dimensions of open unemployment increased because of a decline in the number of salaried positions and an increase in precarious, non-salaried labour.  The decline in salaried work constitutes a new development in Brazil, especially when it is compared to the evolution of labour practices throughout the entire twentieth century.  Moreover, the decline of salaried work  as a proportion of the total work force, indicates the strength of the substantial changes in the labour structure of the country.

           Between the abolition of slavery in the last quarter of the 19th century and the 1980’s there was a by and large progressive development of salaried labour in Brazil, with the exception both of recessionary periods such as 1929-32, 1980-83 and 1990-92, and those periods that saw large-scale modifications in the technical aspects of production, such as in the technological revolution in the textile industry in the 1950’s and (perhaps) the 1990’s.  But whenever there was an expansion of production the generation of formal unemployment overshadowed the creation of other forms of work.

            In the 1940’s to the 1970’s, for every 10 jobs, eight were salaried and, of these, seven were registered.  However, for every 10 jobs created during the 1990’s, only four were salaried.

               The trend in the reduction of registered workers figures strongly in the general decline of salaried work..  The number of registered, salaried workers continued to rise throughout the 1990’s, albeit with levels of variation that were insufficient to compensate for the loss of non-registered, salaried work.  In 2003 for example, one out of every two workers was salaried, while in 1980 the ratio was two of every three workers. 

The proliferation of forms of work constituting the “Economically Active Population” (EAP), particularly with respect to occupations of low productivity and precarious work conditions, marks out the broadest context of the current employment crisis in Brazil.  The largest gap in the workforce has not been salaried workers, but self-employed, autonomous, independent and cooperative workers, among others.

     It is important to note that self-employed occupations can very often be identified as one of the new forms of modern economic activity, especially in the case of autonomous work for large corporations, for this arises in the most favourable conditions of remuneration and work  (technical specialists and manual labourers with a high level of schooling and the most professional experience).  The self-employed work that has really expanded is what is traditionally called “autonomous” work—which is characterized, in general, by insufficient working conditions and income. 

Because of this, the degree of vulnerability among workers began to rise again at the beginning of the 1990’s.  Until then, the rates of underutilized labour, traditionally identified by unemployment and by unsalaried and self-employed work, tended to decline.

               Beyond the explicit quantity of unemployed persons, it is important to emphasize as well the drastic change in the composition of unemployment.  In other words, the profile of the typical unemployed person has changed, no longer consisting, as in the recent past, of specific segments of the workforce  such as young people, women, blacks, people without professional qualifications, the illiterate and those with little professional experience.  On the whole, unemployment used to be a relatively homogeneous phenomenon that was concentrated in certain specific segments of the workforce.

      Currently, however, unemployment has become a complex and very heterogeneous phenomenon, achieving a generalized form in practically all segments of society, including spheres requiring a high level of education, experienced professionals and workers in the highest levels of remuneration.  It is thus possible to conclude that there are no longer any strata of Brazilian society that are immune to unemployment.

Not withstanding the general restructuring of the workforce, with the marked presence of national unemployment, public policy regarding labour remains unresponsive to this complex reality.  This can be observed as much in the enormous fragmentation of programs, in poor social security, scarce public resources, overlapping on functions, privatization, corruption, and elevated costs.

It goes without saying that a nation which privileges the right of private property is incapable of committing itself to a political and social economy of full employment.  Because of this, the right to work in Brazil continues to be denied over and over again, condemning millions of heads of families to survive in conditions of extreme misery, as well as creating the circumstances by which young people will abandon their rightful expectations of social mobility.