2018.02.2816:01:00UTC+00BRAZIL: Quarterly Jobless Rate Rises In January To Highest Level Since 3Q17

Brazil's unemployment rate rose for the first time in almost a year, to 12.2% in the quarter ended on January, from 11.8% in the quarter ended in December 2017, surpassing market expectations of a 12.0% rate, according to the national statistics office.

The increase interrupted a sequence of nine consecutive decreases in the unemployment rate after a 13.7% peak in the first quarter of 2017.

Compared to the quarter ended in January 2017 the Brazilian unemployment rate fell by 0.4 percentage points.

The unemployed population in Brazil totaled 12.7 million in the quarter ended in January 2018, stable from a year before, while the Brazilian working population totaled 91.7 million in the quarter, 2.1% higher (1.8 million more people) than in the same period of a year before.

Workers with a formal contract in the private sector totaled 33.3 million, down 1.7% from a year earlier. Employees with no formal contract totaled 11 million at the end of January, 5.6% higher on an annual basis. Self-employed workers grew 4.4%.

The Brazilian workers' average monthly real income was at R$ 2,169 in the quarter between November 2017 and January 2018, stable from a year before. The total average real income of the employed people in the last three months was at R$ 193.8 billion, up 3.6% from the same period a year earlier.