Bloomberg — Brazil’s unemployment rate declined for the seventh-straight month to the lowest level since 2015, signaling the job market continued to improve ahead of Sunday’s presidential runoff.
Official data released on Thursday showed joblessness dropping to 8.7% in the three months through September, matching the median estimate from economists in a Bloomberg survey. The number of unemployed fell to 9.5 million, the lowest since December, 2015, the national statistics agency said.
Three days before Latin America’s biggest election this year, pocketbook issues like jobs, salaries and inflation on the top of voters’ minds. While most major polls show leftist challenger, former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, with a narrow lead, analysts say incumbent Jair Bolsonaro is being helped by an improving economic outlook and that the race remains competitive.
--With assistance from Giovanna Serafim
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