Brazil's unemployment rate hits 12.4 pct in February

RIO DE JANEIRO, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's unemployment rate grew to 12.4 percent for the quarter ending in February, the state-run Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) said Friday.

The number of the unemployed increased to 13.1 million, up by 892,000 compared with that for the final quarter of 2018, while it remained stable compared with that of the same period last year, the IBGE said.

The unemployment rate marked a second consecutive quarterly increase, but was lower than the 12.6 percent registered during the same quarter last year, the IBGE said.

"Unemployment grew again, but it is not the largest increase. The highest rate during the same quarter was 13.2 percent in 2017. We expected that it would grow again and it's an increase that tends to occur at the beginning of the year," IBGE said.

The number of employed people dropped to 92.1 million, down by 1.1 percent compared with the figure for the final quarter of 2018, but grew by 1.1 percent year-on-year, it said.

In 2018, Brazil's average unemployment rate fell to 12.3 percent, 0.4 percent lower than in 2017, becoming the first decrease in three years, according to official figures.