Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística

The IBGE’s Continuous National Household Sample Survey (Continuous PNAD) investigates labor market conditions in the country from a sample composed of more than 210 thousand housing units spread in about 3,500 municipalities. Approximately two thousand survey agents visit the household sample every three months. The Continuous PNAD provides essential information about the workers in Brazil, even about those without a formal employment contract. It is one of the most advanced surveys in the world, in compliance with recommendations from international cooperation bodies, mainly from the International Labor Organization (ILO). Digital data collection has been employed in the Continuous PNAD since 2012.

The Continuous PNAD also monitors the number of unemployed persons in the country, that is, those who do not have a job are in search of one: in September 2018, Brazil had 12.5 million persons in this situation. The survey also provides information on the many forms of underutilization of workforce, in a universe of more than 27 million persons in precarious conditions, including underemployment because of insufficiency of working hours, and, also, persons who need and would like to have a job, but cannot, since they are taking care of children or elderly persons, for example. Not to mention the discouraged persons, those who have given up trying to find a job. Last September the discouraged group in Brazil had a total 4.8 million persons.

The IBGE wishes to clarify that cases related to the beneficiaries of the Bolsa Família Program are covered by an annual edition of Continuous PNAD that deals with income from all sources. In 2017, that universe encompassed about 9.5 million housing units in our country. The status of the beneficiaries living in those housing units can vary in terms of their participation in the labor market: some of them are unemployed; others, working for own-consumption; others, out of the workforce; or even discouraged.

Lastly, the IBGE highlights that, for 82 years, it has been engaged in a close dialogue with the different segments of the Brazilian society, always aiming at the improvement of all the surveys it produces, including the Continuous PNAD. The Institute has been open to suggestions. It has been in the service of the Brazilian government and of every citizen, and ready to provide clarification regarding the work it performs. 

Rio de Janeiro, November 6, 2018

IBGE Board of Directors