Brazil unemployment drops to 5.6% as May tax revenue hits record high

The Brazilian labour market showed further improvement in the May‑June 2026 quarter, with the unemployment rate falling to 5.6%, the lowest level for the May period since the PNAD Continuous series began in 2012. 6.1 million people were classified as unemployed, a 9.3 % decline from the same quarter a year earlier, while the employed population rose to 102.7 million, up 0.5 % from the previous quarter. Average real monthly earnings stood at R$ 3,726, unchanged from the prior month and 4 % above the same period in 2025. The share of informal workers was 37.3 % (about 38.3 million) and 66.6 % of workers contributed to the pension system (approximately 68.4 million people).

In the same period, federal tax collection reached a historic R$ 266.8 billion in May 2026, the highest monthly total since the Receita Federal began recording data in 1995. This represents a real growth of 10.69 % over May 2025. Cumulative revenue from January to May hit a record R$ 1.32 trillion, boosted largely by oil‑related receipts that amounted to R$ 50.6 billion, as well as higher collections of the IOF (R$ 8.1 billion), IRPJ/CSLL (R$ 36.7 billion) and other taxes.