Brazilian Economic Crisis and Occupation Adjustment: An Analysis for Different Groups of Workers between 2012 and 2017

Abstract

This paper aims to verify the immediate effects of the Brazilian economic crisis on the employment ratio of different groups of workers in Brazil and in the Brazilian federative units and to identify the explanatory factors of the differences of the groups in the occupational adjustment. For that, Shapley decomposition is applied, using PNADC microdata for the period 2012–2017. Due to the economic crisis, groups of less educated, non-whites, adult and men suffered the greatest relative losses of occupation when in comparison to groups of more educated, young, non-whites and women. The greatest reduction in the occupations of male and adult workers were explained, primarily due to their higher initial employment level and, in the case of men, by their greater representativeness in the industry. Less educated individuals and non-whites workers were more affected due to a significant reduction in the sectoral occupation level of these workers.