RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- Brazil had an average unemployment rate of 11.9 percent in 2019, the lowest since 2016, the country's statistics agency IBGE said on Friday.

File photo

The country's unemployment rate fell to 11 percent in the fourth quarter of 2019, ending the year with the lowest quarterly rate since the first quarter of 2016.

Despite the decrease, unemployment is still a major problem in Brazil. The unemployed population amounts to 11.6 million. Citizens without formal contracts, and thus unprotected by labor rights, was 41 percent in the fourth quarter, or 38.4 million people.
The figures are larger than the number of Brazilians formally employed in the private sector, which rose 1.8 percent to 33.7 million people. The number of self-employed remained stable at 24.6 million and public sector workers amounted to 11.6 million.
According to IBGE analyst Adriana Beringuy, there was a rise in job generation during the year. However, she warned that many jobs generated in the last quarter of the year are seasonal, such as temporary sales people hired for the holiday season.