Rio, September 17, 2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - The indicators of industrial employment in Brazil continue to fall. The decline for the period January-June came to 1.8%, according to information released today by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). The drop between June and July was 0.2%, the sixth consecutive negative result.

Compared with July, 2002, the number of firings in the industrial sector exceeded the number of new hirings in 10 of the 14 regions included in the survey. The overall rate was -1.2%. The areas that fought the general tendency and raised the employment level were the North and Center-West regions (4.8%) and the states of Paraná (2.9%), Santa Catarina (2.2%), and Pernambuco (0.9%).

Between January and July of this year, compared with the same period last year, there has been a cumulative decline of 0.3%, which, according to the IBGE, reflects the declines that occurred in 10 regions and in 10 branches of industry. Worth special mention among the negative performers are the manufacturing sector (-8.7%), the non-metallic mineral sector (-5.1%), and textiles (-3.3%). (DAS)