Source: Yahoo Brazil - 08/09/2010

Rio de Janeiro, Sep 8 (EFE) .- The level of informal workers in Brazil fell in 2009 to the lowest level in history and their income reached the highest value in 14 years, according to a study released today by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

The National Household Sample Survey (PNAD) released today by the IBGE, based on data released in 2009, indicated that Brazil had 54,3 million workers last year.

Of these, 59,6% had a formal contract, 28,2% were informal and the remaining 12,2% were military or civil servants.

The percentage of formal workers is a historical record, as well as that of informal workers, which in 2004 represented 33,1% of the total.

Informality also fell among domestic employees, a sector that involves 7,2 million people, of which 2 million still lacked labor guarantees in 2009.

For the study, 399.387 people were interviewed in 153.837 households, out of the approximately 58,6 million in the country.

The survey also found an increase in workers' real income and a reduction in the concentration of income in the Gini index, from 0,521 in 2008 to 0,518 in 2009.

The study also indicated a drop in the number of children in the labor market (from 4,5 million in 2008 to 4,3 million in 2009) and an increase in graduates among the employed population (from 41,2% in 2008 to 43,1, 2009% in XNUMX).

According to PNAD, Brazil had 191,8 million inhabitants last year, of which 51,3% were female and 11,3% were over 60 years old.

For the first time in ten years, the study also recorded an increase in fertility, which reached 1,94 children per woman.

The survey found a drop in illiteracy (from 11,5% of the population over 15 in 2004 to 9,7% in 2009).

In addition, according to PNAD, 78,5% of families have a cell phone, 34,7% have a computer and 27,4% have access to the internet.

Despite these advances, the number of unemployed persons rose from 7,1 million in 2008 to 8,4 million in 2009 as a result of the crisis, but economists consider that number to fall again because the country has grown again.

The unemployment rate rose from 7,1% of the economically active population (101,1 million) in 2008 to 8,3% in 2009, putting an end to a sequence of three years of decline in the indicator.

The average monthly income of workers last year was R $ 1.106, 20% more in real terms than in 2004.

Although the average income of women has grown for the fifth consecutive year, last year it still accounted for 67,1% of men's earnings.

Last year, women represented 51,3% of the working age population, but only 42,6% of the employed and 58,3% of the unemployed. EFE