Cristiane Ribeiro
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Rio - The unemployment rate in the country's six major metropolitan areas in July was 9.4%, stable with respect to June. This is the lowest level since March, 2002, when the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) initiated its Monthly Employment Survey series.

The data released today show that 2.1 million people were unemployed in June. The majority of them were women in the 25-49 age bracket, as was the case in June. Compared with July, 2004, unemployment was down 15.6% in the regions surveyed (Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, São Paulo, Porto Alegre, Recife, and Salvador).

The employed population, estimated at 19.8 million people in the six areas, remained stable in comparison with June, 2005, and was up 2.3% (or more than 445 thousand people) in comparison with July, 2004.

The survey also shows that the estimated average wage received by workers in July was R$ 968.30, 2.5% more than in June and 1.6% more than in July, 2004.

Translation: David Silberstein