Cristiane Ribeiro
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Rio - After three straight months of negative results, industrial employment in Brazil was stable in January of this year, registering the same number of workers hired and fired. Nevertheless, in comparison with January, 2005, industrial employment was down 1.3%, maintaining a sequence of five negative results when this basis of comparison is used, as the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) announced today (17).

Using the same January-to-January comparison, the worst result was in Rio Grande do Sul (-9.4%), and the industries that fired the largest number of workers were in the footwear and leather goods sector (-23.4%). There were also high dismissal rates in the Northeast (-3.7%) and Paraná (-3.4%), affected mainly by the food and beverage sector (-7.1%) and wood (-22.3%), respectively.

On the brighter side, employment increased in the North and Center-West regions (5%), especially in the food and beverage sector (14.7%).

The IBGE's Monthly Industrial Employment and Salaries Survey also demonstrates that in January, 2006, industrial workers were paid 5.3% more than in December, 2005.

This improvement reverses a sequence of four negative results, and, according to the IBGE, reflects the payment of benefits, such as profit-sharing, in the petroleum, natural gas, and iron ore sectors (23.7%).

In relation to January, 2005, payrolls were off 0.2%. The biggest impact was made by Rio Grande do Sul (-11.1%), due to lower payrolls in the footwear and leather goods sector (-27.0%) and the paper and publishing sector (-34.2%).

Translation: David Silberstein