Stênio Ribeiro
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Brasília - Brazil's unemployment rate reveals a firm downward trend, which should become more solid over the course of President Lula's Administration. This affirmation comes from the Minister of Labor and Employment, Ricardo Berzoini, who participated in today's opening of the seminar "Brazil-Canada: Challenges to Job Creation," at the National Confederation of Industry (CNI) in Brasília.

He commemorated the generation of 2.3 million formal job positions during the current Administration, in consequence of overall domestic economic growth, which registered a 5.2% increase in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2004, and he foresaw the creation of "many more jobs" as a result of the changes proposed in the union reform project sent by the Executive to the National Congress.

Berzoini said the the growth registered during these two years of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's Administration "is reason for commemoration but not complacency." He emphasized the need for a more coordinated effort between the government and entrepreneurs for the country to consolidate its economic recovery even more, with more investments and the subsequent creation of jobs.

Translation: David Silberstein