Daisy Nascimento
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Rio - Unemployment fell in Brazil's six metropolitan areas (Salvador, Rio de Janeiro, Recife, Belo Horizonte, São Paulo, and Porto Alegre). The unemployment rate in December was 9.6%, as against the 10.6% registered in November. This is the first time the unemployment rate has been in single-digits since the new research methodology was adopted in October, 2001. The data appear in the Monthly Employment Survey, released today by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

Translation: David Silberstein