BRASILIA: Brazil's unemployment rate remained at a record low in the three months through August, government data showed Tuesday, in a boost for President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's reelection bid ahead of this weekend's vote.
Latin America's largest economy recorded an unemployment rate of 5.3 percent in the period, the lowest for those three months since the current methodology was introduced in 2012, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) said.
Unemployment has been falling steadily since the three months through March, when it stood at 6.1 percent. It reached 5.3 percent in the three months through July.
The rate fell by 0.3 percentage points year-on-year.
Industry and construction are driving job creation, with employment in those sectors growing by 2 percent and 4.1 percent, respectively, compared with the three months through May.
Informal employment, a major feature of Brazil's labor market, remained stable at 37.5 percent of the employed population.
The figures come ahead of Sunday's first-round presidential vote, in which Lula will face Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, son of far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro.
Lula holds a slight lead in polls for the first round, but is tied with the younger Bolsonaro in a potential October 25 runoff.