ILO launches unique set of municipal indicators highlighting decent work opportunities and challenges in Brazil

BRASILIA (ILO News) – The ILO office in Brazil has launched a set of key indicators for decent work which reveal the need to strengthen public policies taking regional specificities into account.

"The launch of a set of decent work data at the municipal level as complete and specific as this one is unprecedented in the world," said the Director of the ILO Office in Brazil, Laís Abramo.

"The information revealed by this set of indicators is extremely valuable because it allows us to identify specific opportunities and challenges for each of the 5,565 Brazilian municipalities in that respect. The indicators thus constitute a strategic tool to strengthen the implementation of the National Agenda and Plan for Decent Work and Employment, in addition to state and municipal decent work agendas and public policies of strategic importance to the country's development, such as Brasil Sem Miséria (Brazil Without Misery) and PRONATEC, to the extent that it provides an integrated analysis of each municipality’s labour, local, economic and social dynamics."

The Set of Decent Work Municipal Indicators is based on Brazil’s 2010 Census and other sources of information from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), but it also uses administrative records of various institutions of the country’s National Statistical System, such as the Annual Social Information Registry and other statistics from the Ministry of Labour and Employment, the Social Security System and the Ministry for Social Development and the Fight against Hunger.

This information is available for consultation on http://simtd.oit.org.br, where it is possible to download reports on each of the 5,565 Brazilian municipalities existing in 2010, in addition to the complete database and a summary of main findings relating to all municipalities. The data refer to different periods, according to the availability of information and the nature of the analysis, mainly for the period 2010-2013.

The concept of Decent Work summarizes the ILO’s historical mission of promoting opportunities for men and women to obtain quality work that is productive, in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity. It is considered a precondition for overcoming poverty and reducing social inequalities, as well as ensuring democratic governance and sustainable development.

"Work is one of the key links between economic and social development, as it represents one of the main mechanisms by which benefits from economic development can effectively reach people and thus be better distributed," said Laís Abramo.

The data provided by the new set of municipal indicators are organized into ten thematic areas, corresponding to the 10 dimensions for measuring decent work:

1. employment opportunities;
2. adequate incomes and productive work;
3. decent working time;
4. reconciliation of work, private and family life;
5. work to be abolished;
6. job security;
7. equality of opportunity and treatment in employment;
8. safe working environment;
9. social security;
10. social dialogue and representation of workers and employers.

The Set of Decent Work Municipal Indicators was produced by the ILO Office in Brazil, in technical cooperation with IBGE and the Ministry for Social Development and the Fight against Hunger, and with support from the European Union and the Department of Statistics at ILO headquarters in Geneva. It follows up on the publication of Brazil’s 1st Decent Work Country Profile in 2009, with national data, and the Decent Work Country Profile: A Sub-National Perspective in Brazil in 2012, with data from 26 Brazilian states and the Federal District.

Main Findings

Informality

One of the main findings of the new Set of Decent Work Municipal Indicators is that a concerted effort in 24 municipalities could significantly reduce the number of informal workers in Brazil. According to the data, a group of only 24 municipalities with more than 100,000 workers and workers in informal situations – composed of several state capitals and other large urban centers – housed 6.8 million people employed in informal work, corresponding to 20.5 per cent of the national total (33.2 million). It is important to highlight that, despite having higher levels of formalization, state capitals are home to one informal worker in five. In addition, half of the municipalities with informality rates above 50 per cent were to be found in the Northeastern region.

It was also noted that, at the end of 2013, all municipalities in Brazil had formalized workers through the Individual Microentrepreneur (MEI) programme. On this date, a significant number of 3.66 million working women and men had been formalized through MEI, which contributed significantly to reducing labour informality. In 2010 the number of employees formalized by MEI represented 11 per cent of the total workforce engaged in informal work in the country (33.2 million).

Unemployment

The lowest rates of unemployment among state capitals were observed in Curitiba (4.7 per cent) and Florianópolis (4.9 per cent), and the largest in Salvador (12.9 per cent) and Recife (12.5 per cent). It is important to note that, in general, unemployment is higher among women and the black population. In Salvador, for example, while the unemployment rate was 7.1 per cent among white men, it reached 18 per cent among black women.

Income

According to the 2010 Census, about 75 per cent of household income in Brazil came from work, and in 93.4 per cent of Brazilian municipalities income from labour represented more than half of the total household income. This applies even to the Northeast (the poorest region in the country which has a greater volume of income transfer from social programs, especially Bolsa Família), - where labour income is higher than 50 per cent in 81 per cent of municipalities.

Domestic work

It is also important to highlight a group of 68 municipalities with a percentage of registered domestic workers below 25 per cent, which includes various state capitals and municipalities of significant population size in the Northern and Northeastern regions, such as Teresina (24.1 per cent), Macapá (24.5 per cent) and Boa Vista (24.8 per cent), as well as Feira de Santana (21.6 per cent) and Vitória da Conquista (19.9 per cent), Petrolina in Bahia (22.8 per cent), Campina Grande in Pernambuco (23.2 per cent), Sobral in Paraiba (9.7 per cent), Juazeiro do Norte (11.7 per cent) and Caucaia (14.2 per cent) in Ceará, and Santarém (16, 7 per cent) in Pará.

Forced labour

The data shows that, of the 316 Brazilian municipalities where workers were found in conditions analogous to slavery in 2013, 62.3 per cent had no programs or measures taken to combat the use of forced labour.

Child labour

Of the 888,400 children and adolescents aged 14 to 15 years who worked as recorded by the 2010 Census, only 2.7 per cent did so as an apprentice. This means that the work done by 97.3 per cent of youth in this age group was illegal, fitting, therefore, into the category of forms of work to be abolished. In addition, 86.3 per cent of Brazilian municipalities did not record a single apprentice in the age group from the 2010 Census.

Youth

One in five young people aged between 15 and 24 years in Brazil were not working nor studying in 2010. As for young women, domestic chores and responsibilities associated with motherhood are strongly associated with their condition. In 2010, 48.3 per cent of women aged 15 to 24 who neither worked nor studied were mothers.

People with disabilities

Facing the great challenge of including people with disabilities in the formal labour market, 31.5 per cent of Brazilian municipalities had no disabled people in their formal labour market in 2012, according to data from the Ministry of Labour. In 72 per cent of municipalities, public administration accounted for more than half of formal employment. Since it is the main employer in the formal labour market in these municipalities, municipal governments could therefore implement policies and measures to include people with disabilities in their staff.

Education

Finally, with respect to the educational level of the working age population it was noted that in 81 per cent of municipalities, more than half of the population aged 15 or older had no education or had not completed primary education.